Since its development more than eight years ago, the cloud has majorly impacted the enterprise. However, the advantages of cloud computing services extend far beyond boosting business. While recent reports highlighted how the cloud has benefited cancer research and innovation in robotics, there are a number of less obvious areas that the cloud has had a hand in drastically transforming for the better. In regard to how the world consumes media, the cloud has quickly become a strong force for change.
While cloud hardware increasingly becomes hardwired into the backbone of media consumption, a recent Datacenter Dynamics report detailed how companies and universities in China are researching ways to improve the cloud environment and tailor it for media. The source indicated that Chinese cloud computing company The Inspur Group and the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have teamed up to research technologies for "media cloud computing and smart multimedia search cloud platforms."
Video via the cloud
According to a recent Streaming Media magazine article by contributor Claudia Kienzle, cloud storage services have already transformed the value proposition for online video creators and distributors. Kienzle further explored this topic and what the world can expect from next-generation video services due to the power of the cloud. She noted that media is already a fast-evolving marketplace and media streaming has quickly grown in popularity as of late. However, common problems with streaming media files exist, including quality, size and compression codecs variance. Kienzle explained that many media professionals are finding it difficult to maintain an edge over competitors, largely due to the massive volume of media assets in existence today.
"As these pressures collide with other technology trends – such as widespread Internet connectivity, ever-increasing bandwidth and powerful data centers – the thunderclap has given way to the cooling rains of video cloud computing services," Kienzle wrote. "By moving their video workload to the cloud, media entrepreneurs can hit the ground running and pay as they go for processing-intensive services such as encoding, transcoding, asset management and storage."
Why media needs the cloud
CloudTweaks contributor Salman UI Haq recently explored the many benefits of cloud-based IP TV services, noting that tv streaming from cloud storage systems has already taken off.
"Cloud powered solutions have literally detached the utility of software with the condition of buying expensive hardware and extra resources," he wrote. "Cloud based streaming and data fragmentation technology has enabled millions to enjoy the remote resource power of computing without the need of buying expensive hardware technologies. Cloud based IP TV is one of the benchmark phenomenon in the domain of computing which is revealing the real benefit of cloud for the general masses."
CloudTweaks explained that virtualization technology is at the core of cloud storage solutions that drive IP TV capabilities. Based on the "TV as a service" paradigm, the work is put in the hands of cable operators, who develop user interfaces specific to their services and deliver these interfaces to QAM and IP set-tops, gaming consoles, streaming boxes and Internet-connected televisions. UI Haq further explained that cloud data storage leveraged to deliver television services is based on the "write-once deploy-everywhere" protocol, which favors reducing reliance on hardware and costly infrastructure. He argued that when considering the scale of global media consumption, cloud storage services are truly the best solution for satisfying end users, enabling media providers to satisfy demand in real time by effectively storing resources in the cloud and allocating accordingly.
One final example of how the cloud is transforming the world in regard to media came from a surprising source: Surfer magazine. In a recent article, contributor Alex Wilson explained that online video delivered by cloud services is actually driving innovation in the sport. As the cloud continues to strengthen in its ability to support large media files and streaming, one can only expect that it will only continue to transform life as we know it.
