Hybrid Cloud Services for Industry-Specific Applications

More IT managers will turn to cloud services to accelerate their responsiveness to business needs. Quicker IT deployments, end-user self-service, and reduced start-up costs equate to faster time-to-market for many organizations. Others will want to take advantage of the ability to pivot more quickly and adapt to market changes.

Beyond the desire for better, faster and cheaper processes, cloud services will enable entirely new business models and associated revenue streams. Acceptance will advance as cloud architectures prove out the opportunities for real business innovation and new functionality.

There is no single journey to cloud adoption, but rather a wide variety of entrance ramps and paths. On the demand side, organizations have different starting points and different objectives. Fortunately, public cloud computing services can unleash an exciting mix of new technologies, architectures, and organizational approaches.

Let’s consider the needs of the evolving media sector. Innovation in business processes already struggle to keep pace with the rapid advancements in technology. While cloud computing promises to unlock new levels of automation, it could also create new opportunities for value-added systems integration and business process transformation.

Media Company Hybrid Cloud Use-Case Scenario

• The media distribution landscape is rapidly changing from silos of video distribution (within pay-TV, broadcast, retail) to multi-channel or digital distribution.
• Content creators perceive several dangers in digital media: piracy, loss of control or direct relationships, and disintermediation.
• Content creators also see an opportunity in real-time media consumption data integrated across distribution channels and devices.

Role for Cloud Technologies

• A cloud-based content registry that manages content access rights across users, content creators, distributors, and devices offers several benefits.
• For end-consumers, the registry enables convenience, personalization, and community (with access to content on multiple devices, and new social experiences).
• Content creators and other providers of the registry can take advantage of new business models based on real-time data, personalization, and user targeting.
• The registry could drive incremental media purchases and greater consumption with protected content assets, enhanced discovery, and more powerful recommendation engines.

Application Considerations

• A content registry requires significant coordination within the media industry (e.g., agreement on common methods for managing digital rights and common limits to each consumption model with rules for content use).
• The rights of both the content creators and the end-consumers must be protected in terms of how their respective data is accessed, protected, and used.

For this scenario to succeed, a wide range of players must work in concert to deliver on the promise of hybrid cloud services. Substantial opportunities for innovation and value creation exist at all levels of the stack, from data center and virtualization design to foundational systems to end-user applications to business processes.