The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), the nonprofit think tank at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, has been working with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) on a series of guidelines detailing best practices for content security. That was the word from ETC’s Erik Weaver during his keynote address at the 2015 Creative Storage Conference held Tuesday (6/30) at the Double Tree Hotel in Culver City.
Weaver said the MPAA is slated to release the document next quarter and that it will fill an industry void. He noted that the major studios look to MPAA for guidance on such matters and currently there is no organizational security standard for content on the Cloud. To help rectify that situation, ETC has been helping MPAA to create and realize that protocol.
Weaver is at the helm of ETC’s Project Cloud which brings together senior leaders from the six major motion picture studios to develop next generation Cloud standards, support Hollywood organizations and major Cloud vendors, and produce proof of concepts. The group encompasses many aspects of the Cloud including transport, security, metadata, long-term storage, and formation of an agnostic framework that unites key vendors and studios. Prior to his long-standing ETC tenure, Weaver was CEO of Digital Ribbon, Inc., a pioneer in the field of cloud-based computing.
Founded 22 years ago by filmmaker George Lucas, ETC is funded by the major studios as well as such high-profile entities as Google, Technicolor and Oracle. Weaver noted that ETC is also working this summer with Sony, Disney and Universal on a film designed to test out problems when it comes to content storage and security.
Furthermore, the ETC will embark on a Framework initiative to explore how to deal with metadata as it moves across and between different systems. Weaver asked, “How do the systems talk to each other?” Framework, he said, will delve into the interoperability–or lack thereof–between systems as they pertain to metadata.
Conference highlights
Weaver was one of several keynoters at the Creative Storage Conference, another being Aaron Passey, CTO/co-founder of Seattle-based Qumulo. Passey told conference attendees, “Storage sucks. If it didn’t suck, you wouldn’t be here.” It often is “the bottleneck in your systems.”
Passey said the traditional answer to the problem has been “buy more.” But that will hardly suffice, he said, noting that more storage can translate to merely more silos of information, and doesn’t help customers figure out what to archive.
Instead, Passey advocates storage being “your ally,” helping you figure out how to use less storage and how to use it more efficiently.
Towards that end, Qumulo has a system that makes data vocal, providing information that will help it become an intelligent collaborator in digital storage, retrieval, management and curation. It’s a 180-degree turn from the norm which has data in a silent, passive state, conducive to storage being little more than a dumpster for whatever digital data comes along.
The Qumulo Core system, he said, was developed based on a year and a half of extensive interviews with hundreds of potential customers. By gauging their needs, Qumulo found that users wanted visible real-time data which would help determine storage needs and solutions. It was then, said Passey, that the company and its product offerings were defined.
Also offering a progressive take on storage was Bernard Lamborelle of Tiger Technology, who served as a Creative Storage Conference panelist for the session titled “Putting It Together: Storage Challenges and Opportunities in Post Production.”
Asked what single message he would most like to impart to the audience, Lamborelle offered a parting thought advocating versatility, manageability and data empowerment. He said simply, “Consider storage not as individual components but a virtualized storage pool you can add to and then fragment to smaller, storable entities.”
