EDGE COMPUTING REDEFINES MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT

There are basically two options for managing media assets; cloud services and on-premise solutions (local servers with media asset management software). Both offer reckoned pros while still lacking in many aspects. Cloud computing has revolutionized how people store and use their media and data. The advantages are clear: the content is available to a broad audience that can be accessed very fast with all system users having access from literally anywhere, assuming that the internet connections are fast enough. Big data can be processed quickly without the need of own hardware and AI services are at your fingertips. However, especially in media management and delivery there are some areas where cloud is limited; latency, bandwidth, security and a lack of offline access can be problematic. In addition, for companies dealing with a bigger amount of content, cloud services quickly become very expensive. While on-premise solutions can offer many advantages to the problems related to cloud computing including a cheaper and less administrative IT infrastructure, higher security and freedom from dependancy on external partners, they cannot offer sufficient tools for efficient distribution and online collaboration.

FlowWorks saw an opportunity in bringing together the best of cloud and on-premise solutions in one single system that works seamlessly. The solution FlowWorks has created builds on an edge computing set-up. Edge computing, originally emerged in IoT, is about providing processing power closer to where data is created and processed. When media and data is physically located closer to the users who connect to it, information can be shared quickly, securely, and without latency.

THE BEST OF BOTH IN ONE SOLUTION:

A GLOCAL SYSTEM

The FlowEdge combines all the advantages of cloud services and an on-premise solution while bypassing the insufficiencies from both – all this while making the overall system more secure, substantially more cost-efficient, faster and more sustainable. The FlowEdge offers a new type of a glocal solution for media asset management; globally accessible while locally present.

The local component of the system is the powerful micro-server, the FlowAnt, working with industry-proven software from FlowWorks. The FlowAnt performs most of the system’s functions; through it the user can ingest the media files, manage the data around it and keep track of every process. It is a small and powerful device located where the user is. The micro-servers are connected to a cloud instance, making selected content globally available to all system users. Through the FlowAnt, media assets in the form of pictures, video and audio files are automatically transcoded into a minimal file size. This has an immense effect on both the use of cloud storage as well as distribution of the content from the cloud - when the file is in an optimised format it not only takes less space in the cloud but is also quicker to distribute onwards from the cloud.

How does it work? Read more