The world has moved into a digital age driven by the rapid acceleration of technology, and media outlets face unique new content creation and distribution challenges that require modern solutions. Hand in hand with these challenges come many opportunities to gain a competitive advantage over competitors and win audience share. To keep pace with the swift rate of change, major market media outlets must adapt and innovate.
Bob Garfield of Advertising Age has described the previous media climate as an “age of scarcity.” There were few providers of content and consumers had limited choice. Things have changed dramatically in the last decade: between traditional media, social networking sites and new media organizations, there is now an unlimited supply of content. Technology has made audiences more demanding and less loyal at the same time. Media outlets fight for every visitor, reader, or viewer; any opportunity for an advantage must be explored.
With new technology replacing expensive, less capable, and less efficient legacy systems, there are many advantages of a cloud-based IT infrastructure for organizations that make the transition. The three most important advantages are increased capacity for collaboration, an ability to manage the resource requirements of streaming content, and a reduction in operational costs.
Streamlined Collaboration and Faster Time to Market
The competition in major media markets is fiercer now than ever before. Upstart outlets compete with traditional powers in a battle for a limited number of consumers. Because of this, breaking stories is incredibly important for outlets attempting to stake a claim of the market share.
Teams that rely on legacy IT systems may find the collaborative process based solely on email exchanges to be tedious or difficult. By comparison, a cloud-hosted infrastructure encourages collaboration between employees by providing your staff with the tools they need to work together on projects in real-time.
Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan completed a survey of various organizations and found that those using cloud technologies saw productivity increase as much as fourfold. While the survey was conducted across industries, this translates well to media outlets. With a nimble cloud-based system, employees are able to work from anywhere. With important documents, files and tools located remotely and easily accessed by any connected device, employees can work on the road, from another city, or from home as if they were in your offices.
Increased Digital Supply Chain Effectiveness
Formats like HD, 4K, and 8K are quickly becoming the industry standard and consumers expect to be able to view high definition content via smartphones, computers, and tablets. Because audiences no longer rely on a handful of sources for information, content that is difficult to access is often passed over.
Today, video is increasingly the preferred medium for online content. Outlets are working hard to meet that demand, but operating with older IT infrastructure may lead to significant logistical issues. For example, live broadcasts are generally expected to be available streaming online either simultaneously or immediately after after they air, and remain available online almost indefinitely. This requires a significant level of storage, and that level is only going to keep growing and the bar for quality keeps rising.
As these changes become more commonplace, many traditional media outlets may struggle to maintain the cost and hardware required for this storage. Cloud-based solutions can provide the storage capacity that modern media consumption requires at a manageable cost.
Increased IT resources can also give you the opportunity to produce interactive features, including immersive experiences like 360-video and other next-generation content. However, this level of innovation can only come as the result of a powerful and scalable technological network.
Decreased Labor and Operational Costs
Cost-savings are frequently cited as the driving factor for companies transitioning to a cloud-based IT infrastructure. The rapid rise of new media channels has completely changed the structure of advertising, leaving outlets with little leverage for increasing ad revenue. Profit margins for most outlets are thinning and any savings can make a significant impact. Transitioning to a cloud infrastructure model is a good way for media organizations to cut capital expenditures and related costs over the long-run.
Updating your existing IT infrastructure and transitioning to a new system does require some initial investment, but the long term ROI is substantial. Your managed service provider absorbs the cost of any equipment failures, the sudden need to scale rapidly, or other unexpected changes to your IT environment. Standardizing your IT costs through a strategic partnership allows for much more accurate enterprise resource planning.
Payroll is often the most expensive aspect of on-site IT infrastructure; with the cloud, media organizations no longer require a large full-time staff to simply manage and maintain the IT hardware. This frees up resources you can re-focus on the creative side of your organization, so you can concentrate on what you do best.
Having a hard time convincing staff to embrace new technology? Download our step-by-step eBook, "Overcoming Resistance to Technological Change in a Legacy Media Environment" with tips for how to overcome that problem.
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