The Three Myths about Media Cloud Migrations

Cloud migrations are a hype topic in all industries. The media industry is no different. There are however, several myths going around and in this blog, we will attempt to demystify the most common ones for you.

 


Myth no. 1

Migration is simply a question of replacing

You cannot simply replace some components with cloud technology and expect things to be better. You will need to take a close look at what you had, see where you went wrong in the first place, and when rebuilding, make it better. In an ideal world you would just replace everything at once, but in the real world this is simply impossible. You have invested in certain technology in the past and you still need to return on that investment. You will need to migrate step by step, keeping risks to a minimum and maximizing legacy ROI. But where do you start? Which components do you replace and which ones do you keep? You need knowledge of media domain technology to do that, together with a detailed migration plan.

 


Myth no. 2

Migration is a technical subject

The following is a scenario that we see very often. You want to keep your operation going for as long as possible and at a certain point switch from old to new with a click of a button. You hire a consultant who formulates a migration plan and when finished you migrate by clicking and deploying and you (think) you are done. In real life, that simply does not work. Your people need to be trained in how to work it, and they have to the have the time to be trained. Also they need to understand why this change is needed, how their roles will be affected, be okay with it, learn how to work with the new tools and how to manage the new kpi’s. How do you get these people on board? How do you educate and train them, while their day to day reality consists of constantly having to put our fires while they are trying to keep the old situation a float? The other option is to hire new people with the new skills set for the new situation, but in most cases that is simply a budgetary impossibility. So what is the best option? In our experience the best solution is to temporarily outsource the new operation to an expert. Someone who can get everything going and then take the time to train your people to take over when the time comes.

 


Myth no. 3

Migration is pretty much the same as outsourcing the data center into the cloud

Migrating is much more than simply copy pasting your old workflows into the new hybrid or cloud architecture. Why? Because you would be replicating your mistakes from the data center into the cloud strategy. This makes cloud computing expensive and inefficient. Organizations that consider cloud computing as yet another technical architecture as opposed to a transformation platform are unable to get the full benefit.  This means that when you add cloud technology, you also need to add or adjust your data strategy, otherwise you are maintaining the old silos and with it, the 360 degrees view on performance that you need in order to run your operation efficiently will never become reality. The solution is to implement a new workflow that is in accordance to a 360 degrees, silo smashing data strategy, describing all the new processes that you are going to use to execute it.

About Divitel

Based on over 20 years of focused and independent video domain expertise, Divitel’s mission is to increase the competitiveness and profitability of video services. With customers all over the globe, Divitel is a partner for all things video, offering cutting-edge technology, end-to-end deployments and continuously improving operations ranging from OTT to IPTV and DVB-T to -S. We empower cable operators, internet providers, broadcasters and content owners, with a data-driven approach that powers predictive automation and increases profitability and efficiency. Divitel has its own ISO27001 certified Operating Center in Apeldoorn, from which Divitel is remotely running customers’ daily video services.