There is no turning back on cloud adoption — the consumption of cloud services is now standard practice for many companies. In fact, cloud computing is central to the competitive strategy of most enterprises in industries such as software development, social media and life sciences. For those of us immersed in these technologies, the cloud narrative has been so dominant, one forgets that some industries, especially those with entrenched legacy workflows, are only beginning their journey. Their engagement will serve to fuel the momentum originally sparked by compelling enablers, such as 24/7 worldwide access to data and applications, improved disaster recovery, scalable computing and an escape from CAPEX planning.

Eventually, cloud technologies will be of interest to all types of companies, not just the tech-savvy. Now proven to be both secure and established, the cloud is beginning to attract a growing diversity of industries with a variety of new and interesting use cases. Two sectors in particular, the creative ecosystems of media and entertainment (M&E), and the worksites and design rooms of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), are experiencing the leading edge of cloud disruption, with widespread implications for workers, managers and ultimately, a company’s bottom line.

Hollywood Features Born In The Cloud

The M&E industry well understands that we live in an era in which consumers want more, want it sooner and want it better. The rise of the Netflix distribution model, along with the highly immersive nature of modern productions, has catapulted demand from TV and movie buffs alike. This, in turn, is squeezing production schedules of M&E studios, themselves pinned by stringent operating budgets. It’s not much wonder that M&E leaders such as Sony Pictures Imageworks, 21^st Century Fox and Viacom are turning to cloud solutions to face this perfect storm of growing demands and increased expectations. (Full disclosure: Sony Pictures Imageworks uses Teradici’s PCoIP technology.)

The flexibility of cloud computing allows for the rapid scaling of on-demand resources to accelerate project turnaround. When a post-production movie or TV studio is operating under an imminent release deadline, render farms can be quickly ramped up on a public cloud, then ramped down upon project completion to prevent ongoing costs. Content can also be visualized from the cloud itself using a high fidelity remote access protocol, which negates the need for shuttling media assets between the cloud and studio locations.

There are other flexibility advantages too — that same company can leverage a team of worldwide creatives or freelancers without geographic constraints. For example, an office in London can seamlessly collaborate with workers in Europe without needing to ship hardware to offsite contractors. These workers enjoy responsive interactions with familiar editorial and visual effects (VFX) applications as if using local machines, and the studio avoids ongoing hardware maintenance costs once the job is done. This model of quick scaling and distributed workforces is a godsend to M&E companies facing frequent turnaround of increasingly complex projects. Besides the environmental benefit of pulling noisy workstations out from under artists’ desks, large cost efficiencies come with downsized data centers, especially those of studios located in hot real estate markets such as London or Vancouver.

Modern cloud infrastructure is founded on the most stringent security policies so post-production studios and their clients can rest assured that sensitive media assets are secured to the highest standards.

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