DIGITAL STORAGE IN THE CLOUD
Both of my kids’ schools use it. My son dials in twice a day for classroom time, my daughter several times a week. They both dial in during the evening at 7 p.m. to listen to the librarians at my son’s school read a couple of children’s books. Already, each school is adding more classes as we go. If we’re able to finish the school year in the classroom, I’ll be shocked. Other virtual hosting services are seeing an uptake in usage as well. Corporate America is using multiple channels... Webex by Cisco (CSCO), Skype from Microsoft (MSFT), Slack (WORK), and Facebook (FB) have seen increased demand. And after a long day of work and school at home, you need an escape. Besides the occasional glass of wine for mom and dad, movies are a tremendous family outlet. Now, more than ever, movies offer that chance to escape and forget about the stress of keeping everyone safe. As we mentioned earlier, studios are going direct to the home to find a new revenue stream. Besides Amazon Prime, services like Disney+ (DIS), Apple TV, and Netflix (NFLX) should all find wind in their sails from this trend.
All of the services we’ve mentioned so far are creating the same thing – an increased demand for data and storage. None of their functions can be done without having somewhere to store all of that information. Grocery stores need a place to keep data on the inventory of what’s available. Movies and TV shows need to be stored so they can be accessed. Not to mention the history of what individuals have purchased in the past and what they may want again. That’s what cloud-services companies provide. They make it easy for every business to operate without having to invest a fortune in server farms and data storage. And it’s not only owning that equipment, but servicing it, updating it, and replacing it. They require time, money, and more people. It’s easier to rent it from someone else. Companies like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Azure, and server farm REIT Digital Realty (DLR) are all seeing increased demand. Microsoft said it has seen a 775% jump in demand in areas where social distance requirements were in effect. Amazon postponed its Prime Day, likely because it can’t handle the extra demand.
Classroom and work angles: all of this requires platforms by which people can connect.
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April 2020
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