Keeping pre-release IP under wraps is crucial. But security often comes at the cost of scalability and efficiency. A smarter approach to tech is key to achieving the best of both worlds.

A simple slip-up can be disastrous. That’s what the team behind the BBC’s Celebrity Traitors experienced on 6 November, when the finale of the record-breaking series was leaked a day early by Canadian streaming service Crave. Within minutes, the episode’s big reveal had been shared on Reddit and beyond. The suspense was spoiled. 

When releasing global IP at exactly the right time is critical to business success, streaming content protection has to be priority number one. But protection is only part of the picture. Production is also central, with major streaming players investing heavily in scaling their content offering. In 2025, Netflix’s content budget stands at $18 billion; Disney’s eclipses that at $24 billion. Tight security often clashes with the kind of agility and scalability needed to produce and distribute tens of billions of dollars’ worth of global content in a single year.

Many streamers turn to third-party agencies to help them scale globally (even if the wrong partner brings mixed results). But while the right partnership can be effective, working with an external vendor also heightens security risks. Streaming companies ultimately need to be able to trust that their agencies value security as highly as they do. There’s good reason for concern – when one of Netflix’s partners suffered a breach, footage from season 2 of the highly popular show Arcane was leaked.

In short, the need for rapid global expansion and immediate scale is constantly at war with the non-negotiable requirement for high-level content protection and security. So how do streamers and their partners achieve both?

THE LOGISTICAL CHALLENGE OF GLOBAL SCALE

For many organizations, the first problem isn’t technical – it’s logistical. The reality of global creative production often defeats good intentions. Streaming platforms and their partners know they need local talent to create authentic content, but coordinating that work across time zones can become an operational nightmare. Large files, security requirements, version control chaos, and latency issues turn what should be seamless collaboration into creative teams wrestling with file transfers instead of focusing on their actual work.

As staff try to leap the seemingly constant hurdles of global workflows and meet tight deadlines, the chances of a mistake grow. Perhaps an agency team despairs of the complexity and shares some assets on non-secure channels for speed’s sake. Suddenly, the carefully guarded dénouement of a flagship series is out there in the wild, hitting global news sites. 

FOLLOW-THE-SUN INFRASTRUCTURE SIMPLIFIES WORKFLOWS AND GUARANTEES SCALE

For teams trying to avoid that scenario, security and scale are equally important – and tough to achieve at the same time. To square the circle, streaming organizations and their partners should take a fully secure, cloud-native, follow-the-sun approach to collaboration infrastructure. This stance enables them to scale global operations, connect staff worldwide and work efficiently, all while preserving security by operating in a centralized, secure environment that eliminates the technical barriers many platforms struggle with. 

In a private cloud infrastructure built through large-scale providers like Oracle, Azure, or AWS, companies can store and access millions of creative assets with servers running daily across multiple regions, enabling global teams to work together straightforwardly, wherever they’re based. 

These systems are also designed to scale instantly as needs expand and contract. The difference of this approach becomes clear when deadlines hit. Without scalable cloud infrastructure, adding significant storage to meet production needs can require months of planning, leaving organizations vulnerable to basic infrastructure failures. With it, additional capacity can be provisioned immediately, resizing server capacity in seconds to match changing workflow demands – something that otherwise may require the purchase of entirely new hardware.

BUILDING IN SECURITY THAT ENABLES SPEED

Building cloud-native systems also means it’s possible to achieve security that enables speed rather than preventing it. The key here is building security around users’ specific roles – taking a more targeted approach. When companies design their security model around controlled access rather than blanket restrictions, it reduces friction while maintaining protection. Under this model, users connect via secure VPN, and can only access the specific systems and projects relevant to their role. Further guarantees can be introduced by eliminating generic email aliases and making two-factor authentication standard across all systems.

It’s also important to ensure work file storage and local system disks are fully encrypted, as well as putting regular access audits in place to keep the system clean without creating bureaucratic overhead for active projects. This compartmentalized approach means that even serious security incidents don’t derail production schedules. For example, if malware hits one system, the damage stays contained, enabling creative teams to keep working on unaffected projects instead of waiting for company-wide security lockdowns to resolve. 

Versioned backups are a crucial component of a speed-first security system, too. If they’ve been built into the system, files affected by a security incident can be quickly restored, keeping disruption to a minimum. 

FINAL THOUGHT

Security, scalability, and speed can co-exist in streamlined, organized global workflows – it’s all a matter of working with the right partners, on the right platforms. 

Working with agency partners that deploy a secure, scalable technical foundation gives streamers access to distributed talent who can create locally authentic content and meet global deadlines, all while staying protected. As industry players work to meet growing production demands while retaining watertight streaming content protection, security-first agencies will make all the difference.