By Arnaud Caron, Director Portfolio Transformation, MediaKind

Everyone is using ‘something’ as-a-Service (aaS) every single day, whether that’s listening to music online (e.g. Spotify), accessing emails (e.g. Gmail) or communicating with friends (e.g. Facebook). The entire planet has embraced this original cloud software computing concept. We expect the delivery of everything in the form of available services, although what was originally from a network, is now via the internet. But while ‘as-a-Service’ models are not new in themselves, for the Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry, it’s now become the on-trend topic.

‘X’ as-a-Service: A cloud of terminology!

If we look more broadly across different industries, the most common forms of aaS models are IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), PaaS (Platform-as a-Service) and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service). Such models mainly apply to Public Cloud runtimes but Private Cloud data centers are also covered. The IaaS model focuses on delivering the infrastructure in the form of servers/resources, which can potentially be abstracted by a virtualization layer (e.g. VMWare or AWS). The PaaS model delivers an additional benefit within the platform layer, including, for instance, the Kubernetes orchestration layer with Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) or RedHat Openshift.

In the media industry, both IaaS and PaaS can be delivered either internally to rationalize costs (e.g. telecom operators traditionally have a strong IT group) or by a specific supplier (via a local system integrator or public cloud provider). But SaaS is the most complete model, as it can deliver infrastructures, platforms and applications. This means that TV service providers only needs to enable the video services as a layer on top. Success then ultimately comes down to configuration and reliance on integrated turnkey solutions.

Thanks to the development of media technology, we can see that operations are progressing faster and with more improved agility than ever before. Over the past 15 years, we have seen well-established, strong national TV operators morphing into more open and highly competitive media organizations, illustrated by the widespread availability of direct-to-consumer solutions (such as Disney+) and the convergence of new global operators (like Comcast and Sky).

SaaS models: Helping to drive media transformation 

Today’s solutions are now focused on application rather than infrastructure and with this in mind, we can see that services and operations are evolving to embrace DevOps processes. The key steps from development to production – as well as toolsets – can be automated to enable premium reactive and advanced proactive monitoring support.

This provides the necessary toolset for SaaS-based media solutions. Through SaaS, service providers can now focus exclusively on the media services they are delivering to the market, while gaining access to a flexible business model on top. This ensures:

• Faster deployment, enabling a quicker transition into the web speed era and the delivery of new dynamic services
• Easier operations, as the complexity of the video solution is abstracted for the customer
• Cost efficiency – the affordability of SaaS solutions means new business models can emerge, based on usage and optimized ROI. Upfront costs can be limited and continually refreshed.

To learn more, I encourage you to download MediaKind’s recently published application paper here.

Join me for a webinar on Wednesday May 13!

On Wednesday May 13 (9am CST/3pm BST/4pm CET) I’ll be addressing why ‘as-a-Service’ models are now table stakes across the media and entertainment industry, as well as presenting some of the findings from our application paper. I will be exploring a variety of different cloud-based models and addressing:

• Why the media industry is adopting aaS models and the concepts related to it
• The true TCO of SaaS models
• The evolution of cloud-native, software-based media solutions – and where it is going next

I hope you will be able to join me next week – please come armed with any questions!

To watch previous MediaKind webinars, on topics such as live streaming, 5G, advertising and cloud DVR, please click here.

Click the red button to register for Arnaud Caron’s webinar ‘Cloud aaS- What does this mean for the media industry?’  Register Now