As I write this, I am currently flying back home to the United States after another great show for Spectra at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam. The show brings together almost 60,000 visitors, attracting different players from the media and entertainment industry from all over the world. The conference’s program of panels, discussions and keynotes features more than 400 speakers and is complemented by a comprehensive exhibition which brings together close to 1700 exhibitors, each showcasing the state of the art in technology. I am exhausted but also energized from all the great conversations we had with customers and partners.

During the show, Spectra met with many users in the M & E industry to explore how our organization might help them meet their IT challenges. As we listened to users, we heard about a multitude of common data storage issues that those in the media and entertainment industry are facing, including:

Migration from Middleware – Customers are concerned about the future of the data mover or “middleware” software products that move their digital assets into and out of nearline and archive storage. Some of the vendors appear to be discontinuing the sale of middleware products, and some of them are also in poor financial health. Customers dislike having to pay for and manage an extra software product. In addition, middleware’s proprietary nature and vendor lock-in impacts future IT workflow decisions. Customers are looking for simplified solutions that don’t require middleware and can seamlessly migrate their existing digital assets into a modern solution.

Cloud Integration and Management – Customers are starting to move many of their workflows and software products into the cloud, but they are now challenged by managing each of the individual pieces in the cloud separately. Additionally, many of these pieces aren’t able to talk to one another. They are looking for solutions that allow each of the pieces to work together seamlessly and be managed in one place.

Disaster Recovery – There are many new media organizations that are made possible by the Internet, social media and the cloud. These organizations have grown so fast that they haven’t had time to put disaster recovery plans in place to protect their valuable video and content assets that make their businesses possible. These organizations are now coming to Spectra and other vendors to ensure that they never lose their digital assets and can continue to operate after a fire, malware attack or other disaster.

All-In-One Solutions – Customers’ workflows are more complex than ever before. They need the technology that supports their businesses to be able to do more. However, these same customers are looking to simplify the effort needed to implement these workflows, and so are asking Media Asset Management (MAM) vendors, storage vendors, and others to be able to provide more features. On one hand, this demand is driving some vendors to staff up their development teams more than ever before, pushing forward the next generation of innovative storage solutions. On the other hand, it is also driving many vendor mergers, resulting in the consolidation of technology vendors unable to adapt.

“To meet our customer’s needs, we [Spectra Logic] continue to invest in, and enhance our BlackPearl® Converged Storage System. BlackPearl is an infinitely scalable object storage platform that manages a mix of disk, tape and cloud tiers all as a global name space, simplifying and facilitating hybrid and cloud-based workflows and cloud DR,” comments Spectra Senior VP of Business Development, Hossein ZiaShakeri. “We’ve designed a modern solution that eliminates the need for middleware and enables an easy-to-manage yet comprehensive hybrid environment.”

IBC provides a great opportunity for Spectra to assess the pulse of the market, one of the many instances where Spectra’s dedicated media and entertainment business development team engages customers to work closely on developing new solutions.

Interested in meeting with a Spectra representative to discuss how we can help? Email our team at [email protected]. Missed Spectra at IBC? Check out our tradeshow schedule to catch us at our next exhibition here.

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