Mohammad Wasim, Senior Manager, Systems, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited

The media and entertainment industry is witnessing a rapid digital transformation with the adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) solutions. These solutions have revolutionised the way in which content is produced, transmitted and distributed. The growing shift towards digital media is also driving the uptake of cloud and big data analytics. Experts in the media and entertainment space talk about their IT strategies, emerging technology trends and plans for upgrading their ICT infrastructure…

What are the emerging technology trends in the media and entertainment industry? How are organisations in this space embracing digitalisation?

The media and entertainment industry in India is a sunrise sector for the economy. In the past decade, the industry has been driven largely by increasing digitisation and higher internet usage. This is because the internet has become a mainstream medium of entertainment for most people. At present, the industry is standing at the cusp of a strong phase of growth, which is backed by rising consumer demand and improving advertising revenues.

What are some of the IT/telecom solutions deployed by your organisation? How have they helped in enhancing business performance and efficiency?

Considering the heavy data requirements, the existing servers deployed by the organisation are not enough. Therefore, the company needs to make some changes related to the server, workstation and network equipment as far as the IT infrastructure is concerned. New servers are immediately needed to provide better storage capa­city. Further, the company plans to bring about some changes in the existing plans and implement new plans. This will provide cost-effective solutions to the company with regard to its telecom requirements.

What are the challenges faced in deploying new technologies and managing the existing IT and telecom infrastructure?

Enterprises in this industry face a number of challenges on a daily basis. However, they need to overcome these issues to make a best-in-class experience available to customers. The three main challenges faced by organisations in this space are:

  • Infrastructure to address data demands: Organisations need to leverage the correct infrastructure for optimum functionality. As more customers utilise different devices for accessing the internet, it becomes difficult to cater to the data needs of each device. To this end, organisations must analyse their existing infrastructure and make changes wherever necessary to expand their capabilities and meet the rising data usage demands.
  • Managing IT costs: Organisations need to have the ability to react to the quickly shifting market and effectively manage costs. By utilising the Reboot Res­tore software, enterprises can significantly lower the costs associated with IT support and the revenue loss associated with system downtime.
  • Standing out in the competition: Orga­nisations also need to stay ahead of their competition by offering varied, innovative and better services to customers. Enterprises in the industry can utilise IT tools and systems to understand customer needs and build applications/ services that address their preferences.

What is the scope of big data analytics, cloud and IoT technologies in the media and entertainment industry?

In recent years, IoT and big data analytics have become the two most-talked-about technologies. IoT is a fast growing constellation of internet-connected sensors attached to a wide variety of things. This information cannot be processed using traditional SQL-queried relational database management systems. There­fore, a number of alternative tools, no­tably Apache’s open-source Hadoop distributed data processing systems, various NoSQL databases, and a range of business intelligence platforms have evolved to service this market.

What are some of the IT initiatives that you plan to take over the next few years?

The company plans to upgrade its communication infrastructure over the next two years. To this end, we will implement the Cisco Nexus and Cisco Layer 3 switches throughout the country for remote support. Further, we will increase the bandwidth of our existing internet service provider lines to enable better data communication.