GCP – Formula E accelerates its work with Google Cloud Storage and Google Workspace

In the high-speed world of global motorsport, operational efficiency and technological innovation are as critical off the track as they are on it. And when it comes to innovating in the field, Formula E, with its focus on the future of mobility and sustainability, regularly takes the checkered flag.

Formula E orchestrates thrilling races with super-electric-power cars in cities worldwide. A central part of this experience is the management and distribution of immense volumes of media content. Over the course of a decade of high-octane racing, Formula E has accumulated a vast media archive, comprising billions of files and petabytes of data. 

This valuable collection of content, previously housed in AWS S3 storage, necessitated a more robust, high-performance, and globally accessible solution to fully harness its potential for remote production and content delivery. These needs became especially acute as AI offers more opportunities to leverage archives and historic data.

At the same time, the organization faced internal operational challenges, including common issues like disconnected systems, which limited collaboration, alongside escalating costs from multiple software subscriptions. Formula E sought a unified solution to foster greater integration and prepare for the future of work. 

This led to the widespread adoption of Google Cloud’s ecosystem, including Google Workspace, to address both its large-scale data storage needs and internal collaboration and productivity workflows.

A decade of data and disconnected operations

Formula E’s media archive represented a significant challenge due to its sheer scale. With 10 years of racing history captured, the archive contained billions of files and petabytes of data, making any migration a formidable task. 

The demands of its global operations, which include taking production to challenging race locations across the globe, require seamless connectivity and high throughput. The organization had previously encountered difficulties connecting to its S3 storage from remote geographical locations. These experiences prompted successful experiments with Google Cloud, underscoring the critical need for a cloud solution that could deliver consistent performance, even in areas with less reliable internet infrastructure.

Internally, Formula E’s use of disparate systems, including Office 365 and multiple communication tools, resulted in disjointed workflows and limited collaborative capabilities. The reliance on multiple software subscriptions for communication and collaboration was also driving up operational costs. The team needed a more integrated and cost-effective environment that could streamline processes and foster a more collaborative culture, setting the stage for future advancements in workplace technology.

A pitstop in the cloud drives better performance

To address these multifaceted challenges, Formula E embarked on a strategic, two-pronged migration. This involved moving its massive media archive to Google Cloud Storage and transitioning its entire staff to Google Workspace.

For the monumental task of migrating its petabyte-scale archive, Formula E collaborated closely with Google Cloud and Mimir, its media management system provider. Following meticulous planning with Mimir and technical support from Google Cloud, the team chose the Google Cloud Storage Transfer Service (STS). 

STS is a fully managed service engineered for rapid data transfer, which crucially required no effort from Formula E’s team during the migration itself. A pivotal element that ensured a smooth transition was Cloud Storage’s comprehensive support for S3 APIs. This compatibility enabled Formula E to switch cloud providers without any interruption to its business, guaranteeing continuity for its critical media operations.

To revolutionize its internal operations, Formula E partnered with Cobry, a Google Workspace migration specialist, for a two-phased migration process. The initial phase focused on migrating Google Drive content, which was soon followed by the full migration to Workspace. Cobry not only helped with the technical migration, the company also provided support for change management and training. 

To ensure a smooth transition and encourage strong user adoption, Google champions from across the business received in-person training at Google’s offices. The project successfully migrated 220 staff members along with 9 million emails and calendar invites.

The need for speed, collaboration, and savings

The migration of the media archive to Google Cloud proved as successful as a clever hairpin maneuver at the track. 

The Storage Transfer Service performed beyond expectations, moving data out of S3 at an impressive rate of 240 gigabits per second — which translates to approximately 100 terabytes per hour. The entire sprawling archive was transferred in less than a day, a level of throughput that impressed even Google Cloud’s internal teams and confirmed that STS could deliver results at major scale. Such efficiency meant that Formula E experienced no business interruption and maintained continuous access to its valuable media assets.

Beyond the rapid migration, Formula E now benefits significantly from Google Cloud’s global network. By leveraging this infrastructure, the organization enjoys lower latency and higher throughput, which are critical for its remote production studios when operating worldwide. 

A core technology behind this enhanced performance is Google Cloud’s “Cold Potato Routing.” This strategy keeps data on Google’s private, internal backbone network for as long as possible, using the public internet for only the shortest final leg of the journey. This approach guarantees improved throughput and latency, effectively resolving the connectivity challenges Formula E previously faced in remote race locations.

Google Cloud’s commitment to an open cloud ecosystem, demonstrated by its full support for S3 APIs, was instrumental in facilitating a smooth transition without vendor lock-in.

The transition to Google Workspace, meanwhile, has transformed Formula E’s internal operations, fostering a more integrated and collaborative work environment. Developed with collaboration at its core, Google Workspace has seamlessly integrated Gemini into the team’s workflow. Initially adopted by office-based teams for automating repetitive tasks, formatting, and summarizing data, Gemini is now accessible across the entire business, empowering staff to work more intelligently. 

“Moving from Office 365 to Google Workspace has been a great step for our team in productivity,” said Hayley Mann, chief people officer at Formula E. “The enhanced collaboration features have been really beneficial, and we’re excited about how Google’s integrated Al capabilities will empower and enable our people to work smarter and even more efficiently every day.”

The migration is also delivering financial benefits, as Formula E was also able to replace their usage of Slack and Zoom with Chat and Meet in Google Workspace. Further savings are anticipated as other existing software contracts expire.

Racing toward an open ecosystem

Looking to the future, Formula E is also positioned to realize significant cost savings by using Cloud Storage’s Autoclass feature, which intelligently manages storage classes based on access patterns to optimize costs. 

With its petabyte-scale media archive now residing on Google Cloud, Formula E is well positioned to continue innovating in media management, ensuring its content is high-performance, cost-effective, and globally accessible for years to come. This includes leveraging new AI capabilities emerging across the Google ecosystem.

And by embracing integrated AI through Gemini and fostering a truly collaborative environment with Google Workspace, Formula E is accelerating its journey towards peak operational efficiency — mirroring the innovation it champions on the racetrack.