Embracing the Cloud and Accessibility in Media Management: Findings from Backlight’s 2024 iconik Media Stats

Consuming and creating content is present in our everyday lives. Two-thirds of the world has access to the internet, spending an average of 6.5 hours a day online. 

Three hours of that is dedicated to watching video content. Whether it’s at home, shared within our communities, or what we do at work, video content is present on a day-to-day basis. The opportunity to create content is growing, with the demand rising yearly.  

All that content has to live somewhere. But where? 

Backlight released their yearly iconik Media Stats Report to find out. Here are the top takeaways from the report that can help inform how utilizing the cloud can elevate your media management strategy.   

Data is migrating to the cloud and needs to be accessible 

Before the pandemic, storage capacity was split evenly between on-prem servers and cloud environments. The market has drastically changed since that time, where 35% of data is now stored on-prem and 65% in the cloud.  

Hybrid cloud structures offer the flexibility for IT operations to move data back and forth from on-prem services for performance, accessibility, security, and compliance. 

Cloud growth is only expected to increase, leaving organizations looking for hybrid cloud environments to support their data.   

Data is growing rapidly and needs to be managed 

Data is growing by the petabytes, with organizations increasing their public cloud spending to address the demand. However, over half of organizations spend their cloud storage budgets on fees, making data accessibility challenging.  

Blacklight found that iconik’s storage grew to 152 petabytes (PB), expanding 57% in the last year. That adds up to roughly six petabytes every hour of data consumed and indexed. 

Data capacity needs to be able to scale in order to reach the demand. 

Demand for video and other rich media is rising 

While video content touches every industry in some capacity, Media & Entertainment industries are seeing the fees that come from leveraging hyperscaler cloud architecture are making it harder to use the data they store. 79% of Media & Entertainment organizations are overspending on their cloud budgets, according to Wasabi’s 2023 Cloud Storage Index Report.  

Video has become a part of business operations in many non-traditional media workflows like hospitality, advertising, and our educational systems. From internal training videos to customer-facing assets that are marketed on different social media platforms, video has become the go-to form of content to engage with the end user. 

Embracing the power of video to tell a story increases the need for accessible and affordable data access.   

More teams require remote access to media libraries 

The pandemic has also seen a rise in remote access. Employees who work remotely tend to be more productive than their full-time counterparts. Remote work gives flexibility and autonomy to the employees, allowing them to feel more in control of the projects they work on. 

The challenge is building the IT infrastructure that allows for quick and easy asset access. If data can’t be pulled in real-time while someone needs it, it can stall progress.   

Production companies like Bunim-Murray Productions shoot footage and collaborate resources globally, generating three to four terabytes of raw media footage per day. They needed a centralized cloud environment that allowed for footage to be stored from any site location but accessed in Los Angeles for post-production and edits. 

Cloud structures support people working across wide and distributed geo-diverse environments. 

iconik and Wasabi are the secret ingredient to utilizing cloud environments  

Media and Entertainment industries seek media asset management solutions with a digital backbone to support their hybrid on-prem and cloud environments. iconik’s digital platform centrally stores, organizes and enables efficient access to media files and content from anywhere.  

Wasabi’s hot cloud storage frees data from fees like API calls and egress seen in typical hyperscaler environments, enabling bottomless data capacity. The two platforms together help increase ROI and productivity with your existing media library. 

Leveraging both Wasabi’s cloud storage and iconik’s media asset management platform, organizations can find that they are 60% below their projected cloud budget instead of overspending. 

Cloud is here to stay 

Backlight’s Media Report clearly shows that the cloud is here to stay. Cloud adoption will continue to grow as data consumption increases in petabytes by the hour. Utilizing solutions like iconik and Wasabi allows organizations to lead the pack in content production and distribution, getting the most out of the existing data they have. 

Futureproofing media workflows to handle the content consuming age is now simple and affordable.