This is the fourth and final blog in our series examining which data model is right for your Media Asset Management (MAM) solution. You can read about the journey Jim, a creative director at a digitally-transforming print publication, took to discover which data model was the right fit for him here. We’ve also delved into the pros and cons of using a cloud model, and an on-premises model. Read about them here and here.
In our final article, we’ll be focusing on the hybrid cloud, and why it is the ideal MAM model for most organizations.
But first…
Why you might NOT want to use a hybrid cloud MAM system
There are a couple of situations in which a hybrid cloud MAM is not a good fit. Organizations that deal primarily with office documents, images, and PDFs can probably get away with using a solution that is only in the cloud. An organization such as this may be looking at investing in a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution, rather than a MAM.
Hybrid may also not be a good fit for companies—typically large enterprises—with strict security and regulatory compliance concerns. However, as you’ll soon see the problem of security in the cloud can often be overcome.
The benefits of adopting a hybrid cloud MAM
The main benefit of a hybrid cloud MAM is the ability to collaborate on large files, such as video footage. This can be challenging with a strictly on-premises model, as getting team members who are not in the office the files they need is impractical for two reasons. The first is that it is far too time-consuming to upload everything to a third-party tool, like Dropbox, when working with hundreds of large files on a daily basis. The second is that this method of file sharing represents an unacceptable security risk for most organizations, and in some circumstances may result in a breach of regulatory compliance.
This type of collaboration is also impractical with a cloud-only MAM for the simple reason that most companies can’t yet transfer terabytes of data to and from the cloud on a daily basis.
A hybrid cloud model, such as Evolphin Zoom, solves both of these problems. With Zoom, images, documents, projects, and other files are synced and uploaded to the MAM in the cloud, while their high res video files are tracked by the MAM but remain on their on-premises Network Attached Storage (NAS) for editing. That way, the MAM monitors and can search for all of the company’s files, but you won’t be hogging all of the network bandwidth uploading raw footage to the cloud.
One concern would be how remote workers can access the video files if they are stored locally. Evolphin has solved this with their Evolphin Transcoding Service, which creates low res proxy versions of each high res video file and automatically uploads them to the MAM in the cloud. From there, the proxies can be reviewed in a web browser or downloaded remotely for editing by a team member who is in another location. The remote editor’s project can then be synced back to the MAM, opened by a team member on-premises with access to the high res media, and all low res proxies can be automatically swapped out for the high res versions for export using our plugin for Adobe Premiere.
A secondary benefit of using a hybrid cloud MAM infrastructure is that it provides most of the benefits of a full on-premises infrastructure, without the heavy cost of extra dedicated servers and IT staff. The MAM provider handles the provisioning, monitoring, and security of the MAM for you, while your team only has to keep an eye on your local NAS.
Finally, for companies that are looking to eventually scale to a more robust on-premises solution, but don’t have the necessary data center or IT department yet, a hybrid cloud MAM is a great first step. In setting up the hybrid infrastructure, companies lay the foundation for a larger on-premises data footprint.
To learn more about how Evolphin Zoom can help your organization, contact us to book a demo today.