In 2024, the media and entertainment (M&E) industry faced a unique challenge described as a “production desert,” where content disruptions due to the recent actors’ and writers’ strikes, along with global economic fluctuations, caused productions to stall. On a positive note, there’s hope that 2025 will bring a resurgence as these backlogged projects finally progress past post production. Leveraging the potential production boom to generate quick revenue will require making smart workflow and data storage technology investments that improve project throughput while keeping overhead spending under control.
Finding ways to maximize depleted budgets and deliver content faster will also be key themes next year. Data storage and management technologies that hinder efficient project completion due to poor performance, cost-prohibitive scaling and complexity should be avoided at all costs. Workflow decision makers should look for solutions that allow cost-predictable flexibility, growth and performance to boost competitive advantage.
For example, data storage is notorious for charging per capacity or even per performance, and for operating within closed ecosystems. Imagine how much more cost efficient and productive you could be if your data storage solution provided you with a reassuring way to control capacity planning costs and could guarantee enterprise-class performance regardless of what you pay for? Interoperability is also important, as media workflows involve multiple applications in which data must flow seamlessly across.
Navigating the content avalanche with software-defined, composable storage
While productions may have temporarily stalled, technology trends have not. Post houses will be confronted with more 4K, 8K or even VR content, which can quickly overload workflows not equipped to handle heavier loads. In addition, creative teams are growing more fragmented and are struggling with how to quickly access data from remote locations without incurring compounding public-cloud costs or forklifting on-premises hardware solutions. A high-performance, on-premises storage option that integrates with a wide range of technologies, allows for high-speed access to critical data, and can complement strategic use of cloud resources, will competently address both cost and efficiency concerns.
As content continues to grow in size and becomes more resource intensive, learning how to expand capacity and maintain performance, while reducing total cost of ownership, are all paramount to success. A software-defined storage platform with composable feature bundles will help you better handle the 2025 avalanche of content as it addresses cost efficiency, productivity and data accessibility where and when needed most.
Composability’s flexibility lets you choose the exact bundle of features you need, avoiding the feature bloat associated with one-size-fits-all solutions. It also allows for a game-changing, unlimited capacity licensing model that lets you scale without facing unpredictable costs or sacrificing performance.
Challenges and opportunities ahead
The challenges facing the M&E industry are significant, but not insurmountable. Media organizations must manage project capacity without compromising performance amidst tighter budgets, heightened content demands and a new remote work paradigm. With the flexibility and interoperability of software-defined storage with composable architecture, you will achieve greater efficiency, lower costs and a higher return on investment.
Sean Lee is the CEO of OpenDrives (www.opendrives.com). OpenDrives delivers high-performance, economically scalable, and easy-to-use data storage solutions that are powered by the company’s software-defined platform Atlas, which is purpose-built to optimize high-bandwidth, low-latency media workflows.