Businesses in every industry are now operating in the cloud. This is also true for Media and Entertainment companies; many TV services have most or all of their operations and storage in the cloud. In today’s digital landscape, this is causing a wider issue to develop, which is called cloud fragmentation. This occurs when services are distributed across multiple cloud providers and data centers, creating a maze of interconnected systems that power streaming platforms. This can become difficult to manage and costly for both businesses and the environment. In a recent study, 63% of respondents said that their organization’s cloud services costs are challenging to manage in the long term.
Understanding Cloud Fragmentation
Cloud fragmentation happens when OTT services utilize different cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Service, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and many other global and local providers, across various regions to deliver content. Some technology vendors built their solution for a specific cloud, using bespoke features of that cloud, which seem advantageous at first sight, but leave their customers no other option than to connect also to that cloud the vendor has chosen. While this approach might offer benefits like reduced latency, it comes with other significant operational and environmental costs.
Fighting the Operational Challenges
- Infrastructure Complexity: Managing multiple cloud environments requires specialized tools and teams need to have more knowledge across different systems.
- Performance Overheads: Cross-cloud communication increases latency, bandwidth usage and therefore costs for TV platforms.
- Resource Duplication: Content and data often needs to be replicated across different cloud providers, which requires more resources and – again – increases costs.
- Integration Difficulties: Different cloud platforms have unique APIs and security requirements, this can result in more man-hours to get projects off the ground and added complexity to interconnect multiple cloud providers. This can also limit the development of services.
The Environmental Impact
It is now more important than ever for companies to be more sustainable and reduce their environmental impact. For example, Netflix has a goal to reduce its emissions by roughly half by 2030. Cloud fragmentation can result in increased energy consumption and a higher carbon footprint from data being duplicated and transferred between different cloud providers.
Smart, Sustainable Business Decisions
According to a Forrester Consulting study commissioned by Akamai in September 2023, a third of businesses saw greater than 50% growth in cloud data volume and costs over the past three years. As the demand is growing, the complications grow. By making smart decisions to reduce cloud fragmentation, not only can this help with the carbon footprint of the company, it can also help attract environmentally conscious customers. Sustainable practices ensure business longevity in a resource-constrained future. Businesses can take a few actions to work towards a more sustainable outcome and address cloud fragmentation. We’ve highlighted a few ways that businesses can do this.
Cloud Consolidation
By strategically consolidating cloud services, OTT providers can reduce the number of data centers needed and minimize the data transfer, which reduces the number of resources (team, energy and budget) needed.
This is how XroadMedia can help! We’re flexible and can work with the cloud provider of your choice.
Smarter Architecture Design
Efficiency is key when it comes to sustainability. Implementing efficient content delivery networks (CDNs) or adopting cloud-native technologies for better resource management are some of the ways working towards smarter architecture could help TV platforms become more sustainable.
Greener Choices
Like any business decision, choose your cloud providers wisely, such as those who are committed to renewable energy. One provider that we work with, Hetzner, has its data centers in Germany, which have been using electricity from hydropower since 2008 and its other locations around the world, too such as Finland since 2018. This means that their energy consumption is run on 100% renewable energy. As well as their goals, you can research where their data centers are located to understand if they’re in regions with clean energy sources.
How XroadMedia is Cloud-Agnostic
So, what does it mean when we say XroadMedia is a ‘cloud-agnostic’ solution? This means that our solution can run flawlessly with any cloud provider. We support companies in reducing or consolidating their cloud operations thanks to our flexible personalization solution, which operates seamlessly in any cloud environment. It can also be deployed in on-premise data centers. This unique approach optimizes resource usage, reduces external traffic costs and offers the flexibility to meet diverse infrastructure needs. Being able to work with the service provider’s choice of cloud provider helps speed up the integration of a project, meaning quicker time to market for personalization projects.
As the streaming industry continues to grow, addressing cloud fragmentation becomes increasingly crucial for both operational efficiency and environmental responsibility. OTT providers that tackle this challenge head-on not only improve their service delivery but also contribute to a more sustainable future. Allowing customers to choose a cloud provider that suits them and their goals is a big benefit for OTT platforms. For example, if you have services spread across 5 different clouds it becomes a very expensive migration project, if you need to move to a different cloud for policy reasons. By being cloud agnostic, they can directly deploy at their preferred providers, reducing costs now, for the environment, and for any potential future, strategic move.
If you’re looking to improve your personalization and work towards your sustainability goals, speak to our team today about how we work with you and your current ecosystem to deliver results for your KPIs and your end-users. Chat with us here.
