The cloud is (finally) becoming the new norm for media companies. Customers are expecting vendors to offer service and platform options that are delivered using SaaS and subscription models. But not all vendors are fully in the cloud game just yet and for them, there is no way to quantum leap their products forward.

Vendors had to invest in cloud development and operations early as bringing a robust enterprise MAM solution into the cloud requires years of planning, and deep understanding of the vast array of media workflows, both legacy and emerging. And while we believe cloud is the first choice of infrastructure going forward, especially after on-premises investments are amortized, there are still use cases for which fully cloud-based deployments are not necessarily the best solution. This could be for a number of reasons including, access to bandwidth, costs of heavy file format processing/storage/egress and more. Customers need options so they can carefully evaluate and depending on their business requirements, take the best path forward. Thus for the near future, you need to have your foot firmly in both camps.

That’s why we began developing our cloud and hybrid solutions in 2014 and have been offering a wide range of options for our customers at every step of the journey.

Today, the ecosystem of Dalet cloud-native solutions, services, APIs and integration functions are well developed and mature. Our devops techniques, architecture patterns and development best practices are established and reliable. More than one hundred of our customers benefit from full cloud or hybrid systems deployed and maintained by our team. Dalet customers can embark on their migration to the cloud today – whether it is a hybrid approach or 100% cloud – with confidence.

As you investigate enterprise MAM options, it’s important to understand the vendor history to ensure your future.

Taking flight

The past few years have seen a rise of creative teams outside of traditional broadcast requiring tools for production, management, and distribution of media content. Innovative and cloud-born solutions were developed to address specific pain points, greatly helping creative teams around the globe. But enterprise-grade media workflow solutions, ones that combine advanced media asset management capabilities with workflow orchestration, media-specific tools and integrations with the wider ecosystem, are complex and require professional services to deploy. For these customers, the total cost of ownership (TCO) was often prohibitive.

To better address this industry need, Dalet expanded its cloud-native media logistics solution, Dalet Flex, adding SaaS options to the product lineup. This approach ensured that we met the needs of a wider range of customers – from specific workflows to advanced enterprise scenarios that require customization. Make no mistake – adopting new methodologies in distributed deployments, managing new paradigms in security and overhauling your internal data delivery environment is not a walk in the park. However, there is no standing still in this industry and we are proud to lead the way and have a solution that fits our customers at every stage of their journey to the cloud.

Technical Architecture Transformation

With new cloud products and the plugin/integration market expanding every day, we employed an agile approach to development. Our first step was to build Dalet Flex architecture to fully rely on micro-services. This modular approach, combining small services rather than relying on a larger “monolithic” software, was key. Microservices allow for better scalability and support the heavier load coming from multiple tenants with better performance. It also allows us to upgrade individual services without having to turn off the entire system and disrupt customer operations.

Another prerequisite was to ensure that the solution has auto-scaling capabilities to quickly and reliably answer operations requiring heavy computing resources. With media file sizes constantly increasing, the ability to handle massive file transactions is key. Auto-scaling also enables us to scale smoothly as new tenants are on-boarded, minimizing risk of unexpected customer downtime.

The introduction of SaaS options also adds an additional security concern: ensuring tenant isolation. We are constantly developing and strengthening an internal workflow called Secure Development Life Cycle (SDLC), which reduces the number of vulnerabilities in our systems while taking advantage of all the benefits the cloud has to offer.

The crucial element

An important element of any technology class constantly in flux is the right people. Adopting the cloud isn’t only a technology issue, it’s a staffing issue – without the right people it will take longer, cost more and could leave you further behind.

It’s very easy to get lost in the weeds, especially when the process of discovery and adoption will so fundamentally change the path in front of you. You need a trusted partner that can guide you through the maze. Dalet’s revamped customer experience, from on-boarding to business as usual, really makes the difference. Over the past three years, Dalet significantly expanded its customer services resources and shifted its focus towards cloud-native, subscription-based media workflow solutions. Experts like Benjamin Zores focus on ways to optimize how Dalet deploys, upgrades, supports and maintains mission critical cloud environments.

At Dalet, we have kept our eyes on the ultimate prize. We did not move to the cloud to tick a box that says we have a cloud option. Dalet was remade in the cloud with options for customers to migrate at their pace into the next generation of media workflows. It was an endeavor that was years in the making.

If you are looking for an experienced partner to help you make the migration to the cloud, connect with us. We have traveled the path and know it well.

Go further: “The deployment conundrum: cloud vs on-premises – why not both?“

• Part 1
• Part 2