Survey Reveals Competing Demands of Global Collaboration and Sustainability in Media and Entertainment

Storj partner demos at IBC booth #5.F79 showcase how industry leaders address these demands by leveraging the distributed cloud

According to new survey findings announced today by Storj, media production is becoming more remote, collaborative and geographically dispersed, concurrent with rising awareness of data’s massive carbon impact amidst migration to the cloud for media workflows. These demands are driving adoption of distributed cloud storage which leverages spare capacity around the world, to ensure data is globally available at the edge, and to reduce the carbon impact of data stored by up to 83%.

Released just ahead of IBC2024, findings of the survey conducted in August 2024 of 500 US and UK-based decision makers in the media and entertainment industry show:

• 67% of production decision-makers say they have a responsibility to store media sustainability, yet only half are aware of the carbon impact of media storage.
• 70% believe cloud storage allows them to operate more sustainability.
• UK media production decision makers have higher carbon impact awareness vs. U.S. peers, while both embrace more remote work and cloud usage.

The survey, conducted by independent survey company Pollfish and commissioned by Storj, identifies a gap between low awareness of carbon costs tied to media storage decisions and high perceived responsibility to store data sustainability. Only 52% of respondents are aware of the carbon costs created by media storage, yet over two-thirds (67%) agree film productions have a responsibility to store media sustainability. Additionally, 70% believe cloud storage allows them to operate more sustainably.

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Attitudes across the UK and U.S. differ. UK-based respondents are more aware (67%) of carbon costs tied to media storage than U.S. peers (46%), and believe more firmly that film productions have a responsibility to store media sustainability: 85% in the UK compared to 60% in the U.S.

“The amount of data being produced globally today is massive, which is driving carbon impact from mining and manufacturing hard drives and emissions from data centers,” said Colby Winegar, CRO of Storj, “as work becomes more remote and collaborative, we see a full-scale shift towards cloud storage, and we’re glad the survey results reflect a strong sense of responsibility to store data more sustainably. Storj is delivering the necessary education to help production companies go beyond renewable energy and make higher-impact sustainability decisions in their cloud storage strategies, investing in solutions that extend the lifetime of technology, use it more efficiently, and reduce data replication.”

Media Productions are Going Global and Into the Cloud
Nearly three-quarters (72%) of respondents affirmed that film production is becoming more remote, more collaborative and open to leveraging resources and team members globally. In the UK, this belief is shared by 84% of IT decision-makers at media & entertainment organizations. The majority of all respondents (52%) see this trend continuing.

This is driving large-scale migration to cloud storage for media and entertainment organizations, with those based in the UK storing a larger percentage of their data in the cloud compared to their U.S. peers:

Stores over a quarter of data in cloud

• UK: 86%
• U.S.: 64%
• All: 70%

Stores over half of data in cloud

• UK: 49%
• U.S.: 39%
• All: 42%

The overwhelming majority of respondents (80%) said it’s important or very important to migrate to cloud-based technology. When asked what storing files in the cloud allows them to do, respondents said:

• 75% – Accelerate global collaboration
• 70% – Work with the best people regardless of location
• 65% – Save money
• 64% – Meet deadlines with less pressure

“Distributed cloud storage and infrastructure built on the distributed cloud empower filmmakers to accelerate creative output and realize the vision we have as storytellers,” said Jordan Maltby, CEO and Founder of Shadow Magic Studios, “these solutions empower us to work with more speed, efficiency and security while reducing our carbon impact by up to 83%. Ultimately, the distributed cloud enables media and entertainment visionaries to be more creative and prolific.”

Data centers account for up to 1.5% of global electricity consumption and are responsible for 1% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, which could rise to 8% without action. Data centers have a greater carbon footprint than the commercial aviation industry. Meanwhile, servers operate inefficiently; the average rate of server utilization is only 12-18% of capacity. Storj helps growing businesses reduce the overall carbon footprint of storing and distributing data by leveraging spare capacity from drives operated by individuals and data centers around the world.

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Storj at IBC2024 in Amsterdam
Storj will exhibit at IBC2024, September 13-16, at RAI Amsterdam, booth 5.F79 featuring partner and customer demos at the booth from Shadow Magic Studios, Beam Transfer, Ortana Media Group, cunoFS, GB Labs, Varnish Software, Signiant, and iconik.

The demos show how Storj increases the value of media workflow solutions, making them faster, more global and more sustainable. Storj partners will unveil new products and features built on the distributed cloud, including GB Labs’ Nebula NAS, linking enterprise post-production teams for seamless collaboration, and Beam Transfer, for transferring and managing large, encrypted files anywhere in the world.