Netflix is poised to become the world’s most prolific producer of visual effects and original animated content. To meet that demand, we need to attract the world’s best artistic talent wherever they are. That’s where Netflix Workstations comes in. They are remote workstations that make it easy for artists to work entirely in the cloud, from the first designs to final delivery.

Artists like to work at places where they can create groundbreaking entertainment instead of worrying about software configuration, fleet management, or where their files are. By providing cloud-based workstations, we can address the flexible needs of fast-paced productions while keeping our content secure. You can get a different operating system at the click of a button while also never downloading a single file locally.

Our team had to balance different personas, from the artist that wants a one-click experience to a developer who wants a platform to build on. We had to look at the vast array of technology options and say this is what we’ll bet the year on. I’ll be discussing where we chose right (and wrong) and what the future holds in the expanded universe of Netflix Workstations.