Moving to the Cloud: Current Risks & Rewards: An analysis of the state of the art for cloud-based production pipelines

Cloud based production pipelines are quickly becoming a new reality. Pressure on production pipeline efficiency, distributed geographic dispersion of labor, production turn around speed requirements, open source tool availability and iteration are pushing creative firms in the media production market to explore, and adopt cloud based pipelines. Are the benefits of this new wave of creative and technical democratization fact or myth? What is the state of the art in 2017? What are the primary technical and operational challenges? What are the primary benefits? How does the CTO, CFO, business manager, product manager, producer and production manager navigate this complex new environment? What are the current operational and business upsides? Where are the hidden risks? This application/implementation case study examines live action and animation media production environments currently taking place in the “cloud”, summarizes the current state of the art and provides a road map for individuals and businesses considering moving to the cloud. Workflow challenges, infrastructure pricing, remote personnel management, creative control, internet security, licensing, metered rendering are discussed. Cost expectations are reviewed – with examples of areas for savings and area where costs increase. Cloud based pipelines are coming, how do we prepare?