Context
Our current approach to image thumbnailing is placing unsustainable pressure on the service (Swift) used to store uploaded files. Previous work to standardize thumbnail sizes has created some headroom, but this is not sufficient to support a continued growth in uploads. We currently generate and store thumbnails indefinitely, which is causing Swift’s index of stored files to grow at an order of magnitude faster than uploads. Before committing to a significant change in how we generate and serve thumbnails to users, we need to better understand what options are actually feasible, so that we can determine what the right path forward looks like. By the end of Q1, we will have completed an assessment of alternative approaches to generating and storing thumbnails, proposing a new architecture for thumbnails that supports continued organic growth of 10M images a year, over the next five years.
Objective
This work is part of the 2026-2027 Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan:
- Goal 3: Protect
- Objective 3.1: Empower Responsible Reuse
Key result
Create an architecture for thumbnails that can support growth of 50M images over the next five years by the end of Q1
Metric
Success for this key result is a strategy, reviewed and agreed by relevant stakeholders, that sets out the direction for evolving our infrastructure for image thumbnailing. This should include why this is the right approach, a high-level roadmap, known risks and dependencies. The target of 10M images a year is based on current levels of organic growth.