As the media and entertainment industry becomes an increasing target for attacks, the knock-on effect of the increased cost of appropriate defense can be immense, as shown by digital media supply-chain specialist Visual Data Media Services (VDMS).
The company repurposes and distributes video content for network broadcast, international distribution and video-on-demand, and has been compelled to make a renewed focus on data protection, investing £600,000 in a major infrastructure upgrade at its facilities in Los Angeles and London, in the wake of a recent spate of studio cybersecurity breaches.
Making this job even harder has been escalating volumes of digital content requiring secure storage as the global TV and film industry shifts from tape to file. In the last 12 months alone, demand for content processing from subscription video services such as Netflix, for which VDMS is a preferred vendor, has quadrupled, and the company is seeing this trend replicated across its client base.
VDMS hopes to boost the integrity, security, reliability and speed of its offer by employing two Spectra T950 Enterprise Tape Libraries, one on each side of the Atlantic. VDMS is adamant that the installation of such technology represents proof of its commitment to security and disaster recovery.
In July 2015, the company became one of a select group of digital storage facilities to be accredited by the Content Delivery and Security Association (CDSA), which works to enhance content supply-chain security via risk-management assessments and audits. In order to attain CDSA certification, it invested a further £100,000 in high-availability firewalls and switches from Juniper and enterprise security company Palo Alto Networks.
“The Spectra Logic libraries are designed for the mega-data-center world, which is increasingly the world inhabited by our clients,” commented VDMS London managing director Symon Roue.
“This investment not only represents a step change in our digital storage capacity, but also in our security and disaster resilience. The security element, which is now at the top of the entertainment industry’s agenda, is enhanced by the mirrored storage environment in Los Angeles and London. We see this infrastructure upgrade as an investment not only in our future, but in our industry’s future peace of mind.”