In an evolving media landscape, organizations are increasingly moving away from traditional, fixed on-premises infrastructure towards more adaptable, elastic cloud-based systems. This shift is driven by the desire to align processing costs with actual workload demands and eliminate the financial burden of underutilized resources. The traditional approach of investing in fixed infrastructure often necessitates provisioning capacity for peak demand periods, resulting in resources sitting idle during normal operations. Industry experts highlight the inherent inefficiencies in resource allocation and cost management associated with this model.

“Fixed infrastructure costs, by definition, include over-provisioned resources that sit idle almost all the time,” said Geoff Stedman, CMO at SDVI. He further elaborated, “Fixed infrastructure costs for on-premises infrastructure mean that processing capacity is fixed at some level, which, for most organizations exceeds the average utilization level, resulting in underutilized assets.”

The transition to cloud infrastructure offers a solution to these inefficiencies by enabling elastic scaling. This allows media supply chains to dynamically adjust capacity based on real-time demand. Organizations can easily provision additional processing power during periods of high volume and scale back down as workloads normalize. “The key to meeting bursts in demand is leveraging cloud infrastructure for media operations,” Stedman explained. “Cloud infrastructure is by definition almost infinitely scalable and always available, which makes it a good fit for operations where demand is not always predictable.”

While a complete cloud migration is one option, vendors are seeing a rise in hybrid architectures as organizations seek to balance operational control with the need for scalability. “Scalable media supply chains require flexible deployment options and modular architecture,” said Eric Chang, marketing content architect at Telestream. “Hybrid is emerging as the go-to model for organizations that need both operational control and the flexibility to scale, combining the security and performance of on-prem environments with the advantages of dynamic, cloud-based workflows.” This hybrid cloud approach allows companies to maintain critical functions on-premises while leveraging cloud resources for fluctuating workloads, thus retaining control over sensitive operations while benefiting from elastic capacity.

“Organizations can leverage cloud infrastructure for its flexibility and scalability,” said Aaron Kroger, director of product marketing and communications at Dalet. “Using elastic resources allows systems to automatically adjust capacity based on real-time needs. A hybrid distributed architecture can also help balance performance with cost efficiency and predictability.” Companies undertaking cloud migration often adopt phased approaches to minimize disruption and ensure performance validation before full deployment. Chris McCarthy, VP of media solutions at TMT Insights, notes that "By starting with less intensive efforts like migrating disaster recovery storage, then gradually moving into content ingest, processing, and distribution, organizations can test performance, validate reliability, and minimize disruption at each step."

This transition also requires internal adjustments, including addressing operational changes and providing adequate team training. Organizations emphasize that effective change management and comprehensive staff education are crucial for a successful transition.

The scalability of cloud-based architectures has been proven during high-demand events. For instance, the streaming platform Tubi utilized its cloud infrastructure, built with Kubernetes on Amazon Web Services, to successfully support 15.5 million concurrent viewers during the Super Bowl, with overall viewership exceeding 24 million unique viewers throughout the event. “Cloud-based services provide the flexibility required to provision resources up and down to accommodate media supply chain peaks,” said Ian McPherson, global media and entertainment business development manager for media supply chain and generative AI at Amazon Web Services.

The shift from fixed to dynamic pricing models represents a fundamental change in how media organizations budget for processing resources. Cloud-based systems operate on consumption-based models, ensuring that costs align with actual usage rather than projected peak capacity. “A dynamic, demand-based pricing model ensures that users of content processing infrastructure pay only for what they use, both at the application layer and at the infrastructure layer,” Stedman explained.

Ivan Verbesselt, chief strategy and marketing officer, Mediagenix, stated that “Organizations implementing these models report measurable results, with some companies documenting 50% reductions in content curation effort and 60% workflow efficiency improvements when eliminating duplicate systems and manual handoffs across platforms.” To further optimize resource allocation and determine appropriate scaling thresholds, organizations are implementing monitoring and analytics systems. “Analytics and monitoring are essential to determine the optimal model and resource allocation,” Kroger said.

In conclusion, the move towards elastic cloud infrastructure is addressing long-standing inefficiencies in media supply chain operations. It empowers organizations with the agility to respond to fluctuating demand patterns without the need to maintain excessive capacity during normal operations.