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Collaboration is delivering real commercial value for the CDM industry
By Rory Murphy.
The Content and Digital Media industry has experienced rapid and widespread change in recent years. But there's one change in particular that I think deserves special attention - the rise of collaboration.
Media companies have always collaborated, of course, but the extent and scope of collaboration today is changing the way we consume content. You can now watch your favourite shows live on your sofa, recorded, streamed on-demand with ads, from a download on your tablet or over 4G on your smartphone as you commute. Here, vast numbers of companies are collaborating behind the scenes – and that's 'just' in the delivery!
Content creation is likewise seeing innovative new collaborations. Digital Media companies like Netflix are directly commissioning flagship series like House of Cards. TV producers are working with video game developers on transmedia series like Defiance, to engage audiences on two fronts – a weekly TV series and a 24/7 online game – to leverage the power of original IP.
Collaboration improves workflows and supply chains
Behind the scenes, innovations can be complex and something of a headache to deliver, which is where collaborations with third party services – including cloud providers and mobile operators – come in. These partners can help you to manage supply chains and workflows more effectively, to deliver content, ads and media from creation to production to distribution to the end user.
And that's just thinking about TV! We take a broad view of Content and Media at Equinix, including games, gambling and the e-commerce side of content distribution networks, as well as advertising, TV, music and so on. Almost everywhere you look collaboration is delivering real commercial value for the industry.
At Equinix, we've witnessed the value of such collaborations first hand. Our customer Voxel, for example, powers many of the Internet’s top video sites, blogs, and high traffic web sites. Voxel CEO Raj Dutt explained the benefit, “Being in Equinix IBX data centres puts us in close proximity to hundreds of different networks and through these networks, closer to our customers. As a result, we have the some of the lowest latency and fastest service paths to our customers.”
By converging within Equinix, companies working in Content and Media can collaborate more effectively. Rather than work in isolation, they have the power to connect to existing and new partners rapidly, securely and cost-effectively. And locating close to the internet backbone, with an open choice of carrier networks, enables Content and Media companies to accelerate business performance.
Collaboration will increase as broadband and mobile explode
According to IHS Screen Digest, broadband penetration is expected to reach over 70% of households in Western Europe by 2015. The GSMA Mobile Global Economy Report forecasts that content and data delivered to mobile devices will grow by 66% per annum through 2017 to 11.2 Exabytes per month. Just think of the content that could be created, broadcast and distributed with these consumers in mind!
Such developments in broadband and mobile will shape the industry. To benefit as the audience profile changes, you need to collaborate near to the cloud and with digital and mobile partners. I believe that innovations developed here will drive commercial value for the future.
Collaboration and the data centre
Whatever sort of media business you run, you can enhance performance by locating closer to your partners. The Equinix data centre and interconnection platform enables you to link to partners across the globe, as well as within the data centre via cross connects that are economic, fast and highly secure. Through collocation within Equinix you can enhance the value of your collaborations, monetise new services and accelerate business performance.
What do you think about the commercial value of collaboration?
Watch my video before you make your mind up.