Our data-centric predictions for 2021 are here, and it is all about the 3 Cs (content, cloud and collaboration).
Despite a global pandemic and social turmoil, there were some positive shifts in our world that were facilitated by technology. The ability to order just about anything online and to virtually meet with medical professionals, family, friends, and teachers as well as colleagues and peers, and an inexhaustible amount of content with which to entertain ourselves stood out as capabilities not possible even a decade ago. So with that in mind, let’s take a closer look at what we like to call the 3 Cs (content, cloud and collaboration) and our predictions for 2021.
How are Content and Content Delivery Evolving?
In 2020, we saw major studios test the waters with straight-to-home and hybrid (i.e., simultaneous in-home and in-theater) releases. Historically, there was a lag between the time a movie hit the theaters and when it was available for purchase or rent, on a subscription service, and finally broadcast on TV. This trend towards more flexible release platforms is sure to increase in momentum as the major on-demand services continue to invest heavily in creating quality content, all in an effort to increase subscribers. This means that the entire production process will be streamlined for online distribution and consumption. From a storage perspective, this will shift the primary function of an archive from protection to perpetual accessibility.
As the breadth of content increases, you will also see more advancements in recommendation approaches and streamlined user interfaces across various devices and platforms. From a technical perspective, the most innovative organizations will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and auto-generated metadata to facilitate recommendation approaches. Storage will again play a role here. Specifically, key/value-based storage that also integrates metadata—such as object storage and NoSQL databases.
Is Usage of Cloud Increasing?
The whole world collectively increased their utilization of cloud-based services and infrastructure in 2020. No real surprise here. What was a little less obvious was what was going on behind the scenes on the product roadmaps of every software and services company. Many had some form of “cloud” strategy on their roadmap that was accelerated. That means different things to different organizations based on their focus and industry, but the end result will be even more focus on cloud and hybrid strategies in 2021. Technologies that facilitate the ease of management of data and processes between various platforms and locations (on-prem and in the cloud) will continue their increase in popularity. You can expect more subscription-based offerings both in the B2B and B2C markets as organizations shift their business models to be more in line with their costs of production.
How are Organizations Managing Collaboration?
Distributed collaboration is here to stay, and the tools people use to facilitate this will continue to evolve. The cloud services and hybrid approaches just mentioned will certainly play a large role. People will start going into the office again, but data and computing resources must now always be accessible regardless of the location.
There you have it. Our predictions for 2021. Given that we are a storage company, our viewpoint is always data-centric. An integral function enabling all of our predictions is data accessibility. One thing that 2020 made abundantly clear is that it is no longer acceptable to have your data locked in a closet or stored in a location that can potentially become inaccessible.
Learn More About the Three Cs
If you are struggling with enabling data accessibility, don’t hesitate to contact us. We are here to help and hope you have a great 2021! I recommend that you check out our top object storage educational resources of 2020 to learn more about how an object storage and data management platform such as Caringo Swarm can help you improve your organizational efficiency and lower your storage TCO (total cost of ownership). In addition, registration is now open for our January educational events:
- Bigger, Stronger, Faster: Sports Video Growth for 2021
- Building a Complete, On-Prem Object Storage Solution
