Media assets tend to be quite large which makes S3 a natural place to store them. S3 is also a relatively low cost service which adds to this value. However, while S3 stands for Simple Storage Solution it should really be called Sophisticated Storage System due to the many options available for such storage. To be efficient and resilient it is important to understand these various options.

Let’s Look at a Case Study

A particular media company offers a complete end-to-end suite of solutions for every type of production. With the finest facilities and the most advanced software-based services, they are ready to help with every aspect of your production. They support multiple solutions including Broadcast and Media, Live Events and Virtual Productions. In each of these cases the video assets live in S3 which makes the security and configuration of the S3 buckets key to end user experience as well as the company’s protection of intellectual property.

Initial Challenges

The media company, a global leader in the media and entertainment industry, faced several challenges before engaging with Caylent:

Streaming from Unoptimized S3 Buckets: Content was streaming directly from Amazon S3 buckets, but these buckets were not optimized for performance or cost-effectiveness. They lacked integration with services like Amazon CloudFront, which could have improved content delivery performance and reduced costs.

Lack of Data Protection and Backup Strategies: The buckets did not have robust data protection and backup strategies in place. The media data was vulnerable to accidental or malicious deletion, and a comprehensive disaster recovery plan was not in place.

Costly and Outdated On-Premises Workloads: The media company relied on costly and outdated on-premises workloads, which were not scalable and led to low performance during peak media events. Additionally it required significant capital expenditures for maintenance and upgrades.

Inconsistent Deployment Processes and Adhoc Codebases: The media company's deployment and account creation pipelines were not standardized, resulting in adhoc codebases. This lack of standardization led to inconsistencies, hindered collaboration, and made it challenging to maintain and update the pipelines.

Caylent's Solutions

To address these challenges, Caylent implemented the following solutions:

Enabled Data Protection and Backup Strategies for S3 Buckets: Caylent implemented robust data protection and backup strategies for the S3 buckets, ensuring their data and media assets are safeguarded against accidental or malicious deletion and enabling efficient recovery in case of data loss.

Implemented CloudFront for S3 Bucket Optimization: Caylent optimized the S3 buckets by integrating them with Amazon CloudFront, a content delivery network (CDN) service. This improved performance, reduced latency, and lowered costs associated with content delivery.

Migrated Workloads, Pipelines, and Accounts to the Cloud: Caylent assisted in migrating on-premises workloads, pipelines, and accounts to the cloud, enabling autoscaling capabilities and establishing billing alerts to reduce overall cloud spend. This enabled seamless performance and availability for high volume media events. 

Developed an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Disaster Recovery Plan: Caylent implemented a comprehensive Disaster Recovery (DR) plan using Terraform, enabling automated provisioning and management of the DR infrastructure. This plan ensured business continuity, data protection, and minimized downtime in case of disasters. This was done to protect their content libraries, and uphold audience trust, ultimately ensuring uninterrupted access to content and services.

Results

By addressing these challenges, Caylent helped the company transition to a cloud-native infrastructure that was automated, reliable, secure, and scalable. The solutions provided observability, cost optimization, and enabled data analysis across business units, empowering them to leverage the full potential of the cloud.

By protecting the media assets which are at the core of the streaming ecosystem the company ensured that their customer’s intellectual property was protected.

In safeguarding media assets, they not only protected their own intellectual property but also upheld the integrity of their customers' content within the streaming ecosystem. This commitment not only fosters trust but also reinforces the company’s position as a reliable partner in the media and entertainment landscape.