In an era where digital media dominates our personal and professional lives, the cloud has emerged as the seemingly perfect solution for storing our ever-growing collections of audio and video files.
The possibilities are fascinating:
Employee access to media from anywhere
Easier collaboration
Reduced risk of losing critical files or essential work due to hardware failure, natural disasters, or insider threats.
Yet, as more organizations migrate their audio and video libraries to the cloud, they discover that this digital paradise comes with its own challenges.
From capacity constraints and format compatibility issues to privacy concerns and ongoing security issues, the landscape of cloud-based media storage is far more complex than it appears at first glance. This blog investigates the complex issues of saving and managing audio and video files in the cloud. We will look at the insights into both the pros and cons as well as the potential solutions.
Whether you're a content creator, a records manager, a corporate attorney, or someone looking to preserve work product, understanding these challenges is crucial to making informed decisions about leveraging cloud technology for your audio and video storage needs.
As we explore the particulars of cloud-based media management, we'll explore the hidden costs, technical hurdles, and legal considerations of entrusting your valuable content to the cloud.
Cloud Storage Requirements for Audio and Video Files
While cloud storage offers numerous benefits for managing media files, it's essential to understand the limitations of storing large audio and video files in the cloud.
Audio and Video Storage Capacity Constraints
One of the primary challenges when storing audio and video files in the cloud is the sheer amount of space they require. High-quality media files can quickly consume available storage:
Video Quality | File Size for One Hour |
720p | 800 - 900 MB |
1080p | 1.2 - 1.4 GB |
2K | 2.8 - 3 GB |
4K | 20 - 22 GB |
8k | 36 - 38 GB |
As video quality increases, so does the required storage space. This can lead to:
Rapid depletion of free storage
The necessity to upgrade to paid plans with larger capacities
Potential cost increases for heavy users
File Size Limits
Many cloud storage providers impose restrictions on individual file sizes:
Some services have hard limits on maximum file size (e.g., 5GB or 10GB per file)
Others may have different limits for web uploads versus desktop client uploads
Large video files may exceed these limits, requiring compression or splitting
Upload and Download Speeds
Transferring large media files to and from the largest cloud providers can be time-consuming and limited based on contracted ingress and egress limits.
Upload speeds are often much slower than download speeds, leading to noticeable wait times when accessing or backing up files
Slower internet connections can make cloud storage impractical for frequent large file transfers and usage
Downloading large files for editing or viewing may cause delays in workflow and employee productivity
However, appropriate contract provisions can eliminate the above speed limitations, ensuring your service level agreement (SLA) meets your organization’s needs.
Bandwidth Limitations
Some cloud providers impose bandwidth caps or throttle speeds, including monthly transfer quotas that limit how much data can be uploaded or downloaded. Exceeding contract SLA limits can result in additional charges and/or temporary service restrictions.
By thoroughly understanding the above potential limitations, organizations can make informed decisions about utilizing cloud storage for their audio and video files.
Cloud Services Cost: Often Overlooked and Under-Budgeted
Unlike traditional data center IT expenses, cloud costs are dynamic and can automatically scale up or down based on usage. These dynamic costs can often sink an organization's budget quickly. Many new cloud storage clients have complained that their overall cloud bill for file storage has come in triple or more of their estimated costs.
Remember the early days of cell phones and roaming charges? Not knowing when you were incurring roaming costs surprised many users with gigantic bills at the end of the billing cycle.
Cloud service areas include:
Compute
Storage
Network
Database
Messaging
Content Delivery
Authentication
Security
Data Ingress/Egress
Additional cloud platform native usage services include AI, Cognitive Services, and Search
Within each area, there are dozens of service items for additional capabilities.
Many organizations have successfully estimated the amount of data stored in a cloud; however, the number of times files will be searched for, accessed, and downloaded is often overlooked or misestimated.
For many, the most significant unanticipated cloud cost revolves around “compute” usage. Typical cloud compute expenses include:
CPU utilization
Virtual Machine (VM) runtime
Memory (RAM) usage
Operating system licenses
Instance/server uptime hours
Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS)
Management and monitoring tools
These hard-to-estimate cloud services can quickly consume much of your cloud budget.
The Complex Landscape of Searching Audio and Video File Content
As the volume of digital media continues to grow exponentially, the challenges associated with effectively searching and managing audio and video files have become increasingly apparent. Organizations face multi-layered challenges, from content discovery issues to technical hurdles, when attempting to leverage their media assets efficiently.
Content Discovery Dilemmas
One of the primary obstacles in searching audio and video files lies in content discovery. The limited metadata and tagging associated with these files present significant problems:
Manual Tagging Burden: Manually tagging audio and video content is incredibly time-consuming and often leads to incomplete or inconsistent labeling.
Labeling Inconsistencies: Tags and descriptions can vary widely without standardized conventions, making it difficult to establish a coherent search system.
Incomplete Metadata: Many files lack comprehensive descriptions, making it challenging to surface relevant content through text-based searches.
Language Variations: Dialect differences and multilingual content further complicate the tagging and search process.
Content Discovery is the process of identifying and surfacing relevant content from vast amounts of data. This is critical for maximizing data value and enhancing business decision-making.
Search Functionality Limitations
The inherent nature of audio and video content poses unique challenges for search functionality. Most systems lack native speech-to-text transcription and indexing capabilities for audio content, so searching within the audio and video files' content remains a significant challenge. Additionally, specific visual recognition for video content is still limited in accuracy and scope, and complex folder structures can make navigation and search difficult.
And lastly, time-based searches within lengthy media files can be cumbersome and imprecise.
Precision and Accuracy Issues
Audio and video search results can include numerous false positives, reducing productivity and requiring manual filtering. Additionally, inadequate metadata or search algorithm limitations raise the risk of missing relevant or responsive content, causing Open Records and eDiscovery problems.
And now, with the growing requirement for contextual interpretation of audio and video content, searching media files is becoming even more challenging.
State and Local Agency Audio and Video Cloud Storage
So far, in this blog, I have explored various potential benefits and issues organizations can face when storing audio and video files in the cloud. However, state and local government agencies have asked about more cost-effective ways to store large amounts of audio and video files. You may ask yourself why government agencies would handle large media files…
State and local agencies record, store, and search audio and video files for:
Police Departments
o Body camera footage
o Dashboard camera recordings
o Interrogation room videos
o Emergency call recordings (911)
o Surveillance footage
o Training materials
o Fire Departments
o Emergency response recordings
o Training sessions
o Incident documentation
o Safety inspection videos
The Judicial System
o Courts
o Court proceedings
o Depositions
o Hearing recordings
o Evidence documentation
o Remote court sessions
o Witness testimonies
o Correctional Facilities
o Security footage
o Visitation recordings
o Incident documentation
o Monitoring recordings
Legislative Bodies
o City Councils/County Commissions
o Public meetings
o Legislative sessions
o Committee hearings
o Public comments
o Work sessions
Educational Institutions
o Public Schools/Universities
o Classroom recordings
o Remote learning sessions
o Special events
o Security footage
o Athletic events
o Board meetings
Transportation Agencies
o Transit Authorities
o Security cameras
o Traffic monitoring
o Accident documentation
o Safety training materials
Public Health
o Health Departments
o Public health announcements
o Training materials
o Inspection recordings
o Telemedicine sessions
Administrative Offices
o Licensing/Permitting
o Application interviews
o Testing sessions
o Inspection recordings
o Human Resources
o Training materials
o Employee interviews
o Workplace investigations
Emergency Management
o Emergency Operations
o Disaster response documentation
o Training exercises
o Public announcements
o Situation monitoring
The most common reasons agencies record audio and video files include legal requirements such as open records laws, administrative reasons, public safety, accountability, and historical documentation.
But keep in mind, when setting up audio and video recording and storage, agencies must consider the following information management requirements: retention policies, annual storage requirements, storage requirements, access controls, privacy/security regulations, cost management, and search/retrieval capabilities.
New Cloud Technology is Making Audio and Video Storage More Intuitive and Less Costly
As cloud technology continues to evolve, new capabilities are emerging to address many of the limitations already listed.
Organizations increasingly turn to AI technology services built into many large cloud platforms. These include AI-powered transcription/indexing, automated file tagging systems, and improved search algorithms to address these complex challenges. This enhanced metadata management, more sophisticated content indexing systems (including audio/video indexing), and storage optimization techniques are crucial in overcoming the hurdles associated with effectively storing, searching, and managing audio and video files.
However, as I have mentioned in past blogs, the GB per month cost for file storage is the least annoying aspect of storing large files in the cloud. In reality, the search and compute costs
The Data Virtualization/Cloud Hybrid Approach
Data virtualization (DV) is a technology that enables data abstraction from its underlying physical storage systems. This allows users to access and manage data from multiple sources more quickly without moving or copying it. Essentially, DV creates a virtual layer over data repositories, providing a unified, real-time view of data regardless of where it resides. This could include on-premises databases, cloud storage, or hybrid environments.
Employing a data virtualization hybrid approach is often beneficial. This approach combines local storage solutions and hierarchical storage management (HSM) with cloud-based platforms to maximize efficiency and minimize potential drawbacks.
Designing a data virtualization hybrid strategy focusing on audio and video media storage can ensure this important data is secured from ransomware, ensures more than one encrypted backup copy, and other technology to provide complete transcription and indexing of content.
The restorVault Virtual Data Virtualization Solution
restorVault's Virtual Data Virtualization solution offers a compelling alternative to traditional cloud storage and compute strategies by providing data on-demand access to 100% of data stored on restorVault via lightweight virtual files. This approach significantly reduces storage requirements on any cloud computing service and offers several key benefits:
Cost Optimization: By leveraging restorVault, organizations can dramatically reduce their cloud storage costs. The solution minimizes the amount of data that needs to be physically stored in the cloud by creating lightweight virtual files. This lowers storage costs and reduces the associated costs of backup and redundancy.
Ransomware Protection:
Resilient Gold Copies: The two gold copies provide an additional layer of redundancy. Even during a ransomware attack, these protected copies can be relied upon to restore operations without compromise, ensuring that critical data is always available.
Immutable Storage: With WORM storage, data is written once and cannot be modified or deleted. This ensures that once the data is stored, it remains original, protecting it from malicious alterations by ransomware or other cyber threats.
Data Governance:
Tamperproof Records: Regulatory and compliance requirements often mandate that organizations maintain unalterable records for specific periods. WORM storage meets these data governance needs by ensuring that data remains intact and auditable.
Retention and Compliance: RestorVault’s WORM storage enables organizations to enforce retention policies that comply with data governance standards, reducing the risk of non-compliance and associated penalties.
Avoidance of Cloud Lock-In: restorVault enables data portability across different cloud providers. By decoupling storage from compute, customers can avoid vendor lock-in and treat cloud compute services as commodities. This flexibility allows organizations to choose or switch cloud providers based on cost, performance, or other business needs without being constrained by the location of their data.
Compute Flexibility: With restorVault, customers can utilize the best cloud compute services for their specific workloads without being tied to a particular provider due to data residency concerns. This enables organizations to optimize their compute costs and avoid paying the premium prices often associated with cloud compute services.
Strategic Advantages: restorVault’s solution offers strategic advantages, such as the ability to scale compute resources across different cloud providers, optimize cloud spending, and reduce the risks associated with vendor lock-in. Organizations can dynamically adapt to changing business needs and take advantage of temporary pricing benefits from different cloud vendors.
The discrepancies in cost between on-premises and “all-in” cloud compute and storage services can lead state and local agencies to spend much more than budgeted, not to mention the dreaded “vendor lock-in” challenge.
restorVault's Virtual Data Storage solution offers a powerful hybrid alternative, enabling organizations to optimize their cloud costs, maintain data portability, and avoid the pitfalls of vendor lock-in. By treating cloud computing services as a piece of the solution, organizations can achieve greater flexibility, control, and cost efficiency in their overall storage and compute strategy.
restorVault empowers organizations to take full advantage of the cloud's benefits while mitigating risks and providing a sustainable and cost-effective approach to cloud computing and storage.
For more information on how restorVault can help your organization optimize cloud costs and avoid vendor lock-in, please contact us at sales@restorvault.com or visit our website at www.restorvault.com.
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