Cloud computing and virtual production were the hot tickets at NAB 2022, where attendance was 52,468, down 40 percent since the previous most recent live show in 2019, when 91,500 convened in Las Vegas. And there were fewer exhibitors (about 900 vs. roughly 1,600 three years ago). But some things never change. Amazon Web Services, ARRI, Blackmagic, Quasar Science and Mo-Sys were among the notable companies touting cloud-based and virtual production solutions. And Sony Electronics wowed the crowd with a sprawling booth that featured its new Venice 2 digital cinema camera. Continue reading Cloud, Virtual Production Power New Workflows at NAB Show

Cloud computing costs are expected to rise by 20 percent to an estimated $494.7 billion this year, according to a new report from Gartner. Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is earmarked for the most significant growth, up 30.6 percent to $119.7 billion this year. Desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) is the second most robust sector, at 26.6 projected growth, followed by platform-as-a-service (PaaS), at 26.1 percent. “Cloud-native capabilities such as containerization, database platform-as-a-service (dbPaaS) and artificial intelligence/machine learning contain richer features than commoditized compute such as IaaS or network-as-a-service,” which makes them more expensive, said Sid Nag, research VP at Gartner. Continue reading Led by SaaS, 2022 Cloud Spending to Approach $500 Billion

Data center and colocation provider Equinix is inviting companies to test-drive the NVIDIA DGX A100 system at its International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Los Angeles (the company currently has more than 200 IBX centers in 52 markets). This site is currently the only place in the world where companies can take advantage of the DGX A100 to test drive their AI equipment. According to the Equinix testbed landing page, “The test drive solution brings together industry-leading AI hardware from NVIDIA and NetApp alongside best-in-class software technology from Core Scientific, all directly connected on Platform Equinix.” Continue reading Equinix Invites Companies to Test-Drive AI System at LA IBX

As enterprises infuse their business with the power of AI, many are challenged with how to support experimentation and innovation within an IT platform that is manageable and delivers the right resources and performance from prototype to production. Data scientists want a simple, productive workflow that supports rapid iteration, and IT teams want an enterprise-grade platform that scales cost-effectively. AI Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) brings these worlds together with the simplicity of cloud and the performance of dedicated infrastructure, now available as a robust, cost-effective and scalable managed service. On August 25 at 8:00 am PST, experts from Equinix, NetApp, NVIDIA and Core Scientific will discuss the benefits of AI PaaS offerings for the enterprise. Registration is available online. Continue reading Webinar: Experts Discuss Accelerating AI PaaS for Enterprise

International Data Corporation (IDC) projects that global revenue from public cloud services will surpass $195 billion by 2020, more than doubling this year’s forecast of $96.5 billion. The new figures, part of IDC’s Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Spending Guide, represent a compound annual growth rate of 20.4 percent over 2015-2020. Also, IDC expects that revenue from Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service will increase at a faster rate than revenue from Software as a Service. Media, telecom and retail will experience the fastest revenue growth. Continue reading Cloud Services Spending to Reach $195 Billion in Four Years

Erik Weaver of the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC@USC) moderated an HPA Tech Retreat panel on “Cloud Demystified: Understanding the Coming Transformation from File- to Network-Based Workflow.” Panelists included DigitalFilm Tree’s Guillaume Aubuchon and Dolby Laboratories’ Christine Thomas. Weaver described ETC’s Project Cloud, which brings together media and cloud-resource leaders to develop guidelines and accelerate innovation and adoption of next-gen cloud-based content creation and production tools and processes. Continue reading HPA Tech Retreat: Next-Gen Cloud and Production Workflows

In December, Google made its IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) Google Compute Engine (GCE) available as a full-fledged commercial service, after testing it in preview mode for more than a year. Last week, the company introduced its new Billing API as an easier way for developers to monitor and analyze how much running an application on the Cloud Platform costs. According to Google, the Billing Export offers a new means of accessing usage data, and is available in preview. Continue reading Google Gets Serious About Public Cloud: Previews New API