Introducing the “hybrid cloud”

Mosaic is a cloud-based service. The advantages of this approach are:

• Elasticity – usage can scale up or down according to demand
• Scale – platform providers lower cost through scale and these savings are typically passed on to customers
• Focus – customers can focus on their core business without the distraction of IT management
• Collaboration – new working models are enabled, streamlining business processes
• Lower risk – reduced up-front costs and faster implementation

However, managing the large volumes of data that professional video files represent is an additional challenge. Network costs can quickly become prohibitive.

That is why the Mosaic architecture has been developed as a hybrid between the cloud and on-the-ground installations. Data – such as metadata, workflow data, user preferences and content permissions are held in the cloud application, so access is unconstrained by physical location. Content is stored and processed separately according to the strategy that is most appropriate for the situation.

Sometimes it will make most sense for a customer to keep their primary content storage on site. Mosaic can manage this facility, as well as providing automated backup copying and deep archive on different sites where required. At other times, especially when the workflow requires the movement of the content anyway (for example between a content producer and a broadcast channel in another region), it makes sense to take advantage of this requirement and manage the content in the cloud as well.

By separating the management of data from the management of content, Mosaic allows organizations to benefit from the cloud model, while enabling the heavy lifting to be done as efficiently as possible.