32 executive summary theibcdaily
Cloud is a natural evolution Content moves to Cloud
Amsterdam-born engineer Werner Vogels holds a Ph.D. from the Vrije Universiteit, worked as a researcher at Cornell University and joined Amazon in 2004. Vice president since 2005, he is the driving force behind the company’s technology vision.
Dr Werner Vogels
Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
Amazon.com Region: Global
Interview by Adrian Pennington
Are broadcasters hesitant about moving to the cloud? Matter of fact, broadcasters were some of the earliest companies embracing the cloud. A good example is the Watch application from ABC/Disney, which allows users to watch live television on any mobile device.
Another example is Channel 4 which is using Amazon Elastic MapReduce to crunch vast amounts of data, taken from hundreds of millions of video views, to better understand user behaviour so it can offer a more personalised experience to viewers as well as
advertisers. C4 plans to develop applications that people can use as they watch TV, such as play along games, to further enhance their viewing experience and will use Big Data analytics on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to match these applications to viewers.
How valid are security concerns about the cloud? Many of our media customers will tell you that their security posture actually improved after moving to the cloud. Because of the fine grain control mechanisms, a storage system like Amazon S3 (Amazon Simple Storage Service) is seen as an ideal tool for collaboration and distribution. From major broadcasters such as ABC, Sony and PBS, to On Demand services like Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand, to Bollywood streaming companies like Hungama and Eros Now, all have very strict security requirements that could be met with the control tools AWS gives them.
Is cloud too slow and expensive for regular transfer of very large files? Many film and TV companies are using AWS for their content and we offer customers a number of services. For example, Atomic Fiction used AWS to do all of the special effects for [Oscar-nominated film] Flight.
What might a typical broadcaster look like in a decade? There is a natural alignment between broadcast and the cloud. Currently broadcasters tend to have spiky resource utilisation that requires them to build for peaks to handle large events, such as for the FIFA World Cup, Olympics, etc, but goes underutilised the rest of the time. The cloud’s pay-for- what-you-use model and elasticity addresses these issues, reduces costs significantly and allows broadcasters to spend more time and money generating new content and delivering that to viewers in new ways.
How will we be consuming media in a decade? The improved availability of high-quality production tools at very low cost combined with the internet as a distribution channel, and the cloud as a scalable production and distribution environment will make it possible for many more broadcasters to enter the market. Many of these will be small niche players like the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam that streams concerts on a pay- per-view basis, or football clubs reaching fans on dedicated TV
stations all year round. The shift towards more mobile device access will amplify a different consumption pattern: from long form watching to more byte-wise video snacking. Integrate this with realtime access, we see a new consumption pattern; a realtime notification will tell you that your favourite team just scored a goal and you will be able to immediately see the replay on your device.
While we will see many more beautiful devices being built, the core functionally of these devices will all be software connected to services running in the cloud. We already see that with the SmartHub of Samsung Smart TVs that runs in AWS. In the past content would be moved to the device, now devices are just a window to content and services that live in the cloud.
How do you relax? I have a superbly engineered BMW R1200C and a beautiful classic Harley-Davidson FLHP. Five minutes on either of these and your mind empties to true relaxation.
“Devices are just a window to content and services that live in the cloud”
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