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Collaboration is delivering real commercial value for the CDM industry
By Rory Murphy.
The Content and Digital Media industry is global, and it’s still growing apace. As it grows so too do the opportunities for global collaboration and business development.
The CIOs and CTOs I’ve spoken with wanted to collaborate with the best worldwide partners, suppliers and customers. In practice, however, they found themselves restricted to partners in their geographic location, potentially missing out on innovations or access to wider audiences.
So, how do media and advertising companies ensure they can access and make the most of global opportunities? At Equinix we look at four factors that help develop successful worldwide collaborations across national borders.
1. Cross-border connectivity
Fibre connectivity between countries opens up new ways of working – such as in the cloud.
CEO of CloudSigma, Robert Jenkins explained it very well, “For collaboration in today’s media industry to work, the effective use of public cloud infrastructure is absolutely essential. In the past, companies would literally fly tapes from one production house to another, but that’s simply not practical when you’re dealing with petabytes of data in a global industry.”
At Equinix, we’re seeing many of our customers take advantage of cross-border connectivity. Organisations within the post-production value chain hosted in the cloud, for instance, use this connectivity to bring different companies and offices together to collaborate on projects.
Fibre connectivity has opened up even more advantages in delivery, too. For example, live streaming of sports and entertainment events brings more high quality transmissions to a variety of media channels and can enhance audience engagement.
2. Complexity management
You might be thinking global collaboration sounds like hard work. More partners, more users… more complexity? Not necessarily so. Having access to some of the world’s best companies in Content and Digital Media means you have greater choice. Rather than settle for the only firm located near you, you can find the right partner for your needs – and that fits with how you work, too.
And where potential for complexity exists, there is often a simple third party solution. Many of the services in the Content and Digital Media ecosystem within Platform Equinix™ are built around reducing complexity in particular areas.
BrightRoll, for example, has created the world’s fastest real-time bidding exchange for video ads in Equinix’s Ad-IX ecosystem. BrightRoll partners colocated in this ecosystem can avoid using public networks for video and connect directly, slashing network latency by 80%. The Ad-IX ecosystem contains more than 145 ad networks, ad agencies, demand-side platforms, supply-side platforms and data aggregators.
Working with the right partners at the right times helps you to manage complexity, or even avoid it entirely.
3. Open environments
Another key factor for CIOs and CTOs is lock-in. Some environments and data centres may house a couple of interesting partners, but that could require you to change your carrier to work closely with them and even convince other partners in your value chain to change carrier too.
Neutral environments, on the other hand, don’t restrict you to particular carriers or vendors. They give you the certainty of choice – on an international scale. You can make the right decision and connect to the right partners, no matter which carrier they use.
4. Security and copyright protection
The fourth factor is imperative for any firm working with intellectual property – so that’s pretty much everybody in Content and Digital Media!
Security is crucial. You must be certain you are working in a secure and robust environment, where your valuable digital assets – whether owned by your company or your client – will be transmitted and stored safely. Leaked or lost files can seriously damage revenues, business interests and relationships.
To protect yourself, look for platforms that have rigorous internal procedures, best-in-class security equipment and are certified to internationally recognised standards. These assurances give parties located across the world the confidence to collaborate.
Copyright protection is another aspect to consider, and Equinix has secured recognition from the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) because this means we can help in collaborations where there are issues and challenges.
Other considerations
I hope you have found my top four factors useful to help you collaborate and grow globally. Seeking cross-border connectivity, reducing complexity, collaborating in neutral environments and looking for security and copyright assurances are by no means exclusive, though. What do you look for to develop successful global collaboration?
Watch my video for some additional considerations.