Cloud Native Technologies for Efficient and Robust Storage, Transfer, and Consumption of Cultural Heritage Data and Beyond

For decades, setting up a server to host a multimedia database of cultural heritage data essentially consisted of installing the necessary software (primarily a web server and database) on a computer connected to the Internet and accessible from any desired node. Since the emergence of virtualization techniques, demands for efficiency, portability, cost-effectiveness, security, and practicality have progressively changed the tasks of service administrators and the knowledge required to fulfill them. This article aims to provide the reader with an update on the state of the art in setting up network services and software distributions, starting from the success of tools like Docker to the newest developments of OSTree, Bootc, and ComposeFS. It is also possible to extend this software management approach to the multimedia content itself to improve storage and transfer efficiency, collaboration among researchers, and the reproducibility of studies by leveraging technologies such as SPARQL, RDF and OCFL to structure content.