Cloud tech revolutionizes media workflows in Russia's Far East

A recent video conference in Vladivostok highlighted how cloud technologies are transforming media operations in Russia’s Far East. Industry leaders gathered at the regional TASS press center to discuss digital solutions, including Rostelecom’s newly launched public cloud platform. The event coincided with Radio Day and showcased the growing role of AI and scalable storage in handling large media archives.

The conference brought together key figures from media and tech sectors. Among them were Andrei Kartashov, Vice President of Rostelecom’s Primorsky branch; Kirill Kovalev, Sales Director at Turbo Cloud; Viktor Sukhanov, CEO of PrimaMedia; and Galina Mozolevskaya, Deputy Editor-in-Chief at SakhaMedia. Discussions focused on how cloud services help media organisations manage uneven workloads, store long-term video archives, and defend against risks like doxxing and DDoS attacks.

Rostelecom’s cloud platform, launched in the Far East in 2024, already supports major projects. Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) migrated 180 terabytes of data in just two weeks using the service. The platform also hosts Sakhalin’s Safe City surveillance system, with plans to expand to Khabarovsk. Features include antivirus protection, automated backups, and file recovery, with a minimum upload limit of 10 GB per file. Media groups are adopting the technology at different paces. SakhaMedia, for example, uses NextCloud to store photo and video archives but faces budget limits for a full migration. Object storage on the platform allows files to be tagged with metadata, making documents, photos, and videos easier to locate instantly. Looking ahead, Rostelecom aims to integrate an AI model by 2026. The company also expressed readiness to collaborate on AI tools to tackle copyright issues, a growing concern for media organisations managing vast digital libraries.

The conference underscored the practical benefits of cloud adoption for media, from cost savings to enhanced security. Rostelecom’s platform is already in use by universities and government systems, with further expansion planned. As AI integration approaches, the technology is set to play an even larger role in streamlining media workflows across the region.