eMAM Case Study: Enabling a Controlled Transition from On-Premises to AWS
Author
Chris Marchitelli
Date Published
A leading media organization sought to transition its eMAM Enterprise Media Asset Management environment from on-premises infrastructure to Amazon Web Services (AWS). The organization required a cloud deployment strategy that would preserve existing workflows, maintain operational continuity, and support future scalability without disrupting production operations.
The deployment included core eMAM application services, web applications, SQL Server databases, ingest workflows, archive management, transcoding, and media delivery processes. The customer also required validation of integrations with AWS-native services to ensure the environment was production-ready and optimized for long-term cloud operations.
Challenges
The customer’s existing on-premises deployment relied on dedicated physical infrastructure and tightly integrated workflows that supported daily media operations. Migrating these capabilities to AWS required careful planning to minimize risk and maintain continuity across all business-critical systems.
Key challenges included:
- Preserving existing ingest, archive, and delivery workflows during the transition
- Maintaining compatibility with Windows-based application services and SQL Server
- infrastructure
- Ensuring scalability without disrupting current operational processes
- Validating cloud architecture, networking, and security configurations
- Supporting large-scale media ingestion and processing workloads in AWS
- Ensuring production readiness with tested integrations and operational validation
The organization also needed a deployment model that would allow future expansion of cloud-native services and workflows while reducing dependence on on-premises hardware and infrastructure management.
Implementation
TrackIt collaborated with eMAM to review, validate, and deploy a scalable AWS-based architecture using eMAM’s predefined AWS architecture and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) assets.
The engagement began with a review of the existing on-premises environment and validation of the proposed AWS architecture. This included confirming the mapping of application services, database components, and media workflows to the target cloud design, as well as defining networking, security, storage, and migration sequencing.
Using eMAM’s existing infrastructure-as-code assets, the solution was provisioned on AWS to ensure consistency, scalability, and repeatability across the environment. Core components deployed included:
- eMAM Enterprise application services
- Web application infrastructure
- Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon EC2
- AWS networking and security configurations
- Media processing and workflow integrations
The deployment also integrated several AWS-native services to extend automation, orchestration, and media processing capabilities, including:
As part of the implementation, approximately 15 TB of media content was ingested into the AWS environment using eMAM’s media pipeline workflows for:
- Media transcoding
- Media analysis
- Archive processing
Results
The platform was successfully deployed on AWS with operational continuity and functionality equivalent to its existing on-premises environment. The customer achieved:
- Reduced reliance on physical on-premises infrastructure
- Improved scalability and operational flexibility
- Production-ready validation of workflows and integrations
- Successful deployment of cloud-based ingest, archive, and delivery operations
- Operational readiness for future cloud expansion initiatives
The validated AWS deployment now provides a stable and extensible foundation for long-term
media operations, enabling the organization to scale infrastructure and workflows dynamically as business needs evolve.
“Our collaboration with AWS and TrackIt enables customers to modernize their media operations with confidence. eMAM Media Asset Management software, combined with AWS infrastructure and services, provides a proven framework for transitioning media workflows to the cloud while maintaining performance, reliability, and continuity of operations. This approach allows organizations to scale efficiently and build a strong foundation for future growth and innovation.” — Chuck Buelow, V.P. of Business Development, EMAM, INC.
