Until recently, most media companies maintained expansive (and expensive!) data center infrastructure to support their media supply chain operations. Enter the cloud, which has given us near limitless scalability and the availability of resources that can be spun up or down to match utilization with actual demand. With this model, the infrastructure is always right-sized for the workload at hand. But what about the many software applications needed to process and manage media as it moves through a supply chain? In many cases, software vendors simply port their applications to run on cloud-based rented servers, a “lift & shift” approach that creates a mismatch between the consumption economics of the hardware and the licensing of the software.

This mismatch was one of the challenges that SDVI set out to solve with the Rally media supply chain management platform. In addition to provisioning all of the infrastructure resources needed for every job in a supply chain, Rally offers a wide range of the industry’s leading applications as services (what we call Rally Application Services) that can be utilized on a job-by-job basis, and with the same consumption economics as the infrastructure running them. Making applications available as services was a game changer for moving media supply chains to the cloud, as it brought an entirely new dimension to the value of cloud-enabled media workflows. For the first time, media companies could spin up applications as needed, use them for whatever task requires them, and pay only for what they use.

Why (and How Much) Does the Model Matter?
Recently, I heard some SDVI customers comment on how much it costs to onboard a new application, and the conversation turned to the difference between the traditional on-prem model and the Rally model of application services on consumption. When each of these customers put a real price tag on their cumulative costs, it got me thinking about the different and meaningful ways Rally provides real value to customers through the application services model.

In the SDVI blog, we take a closer look at how the availability of Rally Application Services, on a consumption basis, removes friction by reducing cost and complexity, and streamlines procurement and integration – for media organizations and application providers alike!