To improve both scalability and flexibility, the video industry is showing an unprecedented interest in cloud computing. While cloud adoption is still relatively low (under 20 percent), spending in cloud infrastructure is now growing at a rate six times greater than that of traditional IT hardware. But in this gold rush of rapid cloud adoption, media and telco companies must rethink their technology sourcing strategy.
Traditionally, media and telecommunications companies have adopted a best-of-breed approach for individual services, which has resulted in fragmented ecosystems, with little standardisation and many legacy or proprietary technologies. But in the cloud, this generally causes a degraded quality of experience, lower efficiency, and higher costs.
Unifying the Ecosystem
Lately, standardisation has improved for delivering in a cloud environment. New protocols such as RIST, SRT, and NDI have augmented signal transmission to the cloud, enabling new workflows such as full remote production.
CMAF finally seems to be bridging the gap between HLS and DASH. It’s now offering a single industry standard that facilitates compatibility with end-user devices and leads to higher efficiency, better caching, reduced latency, and lower operational costs.
These new ecosystems provide higher levels of service and better overall value compared to legacy fragmented ecosystems.
Migrating to the Cloud – the Smart Way
When bringing a video ecosystem to the cloud, the appropriate question is not what workload should be moved to the cloud, but “workload should be moved to the cloud first. A video ecosystem in the cloud should be built following an open timeline, NOT as a project with a deadline.
Prime workloads for migration can be identified with two questions:
- What would benefit most from the cloud?
- What would be the easiest workload to migrate to the cloud?
Two Strategies
Depending on the corporate objectives, different migration paths can be considered.
An innovation-focused migration strategy can lead to new services that attract more customers and create increased revenue streams, such as personalised FAST channels. One possibility is on-the-fly, personalized, thematic live channels with high-value ad slots, increasing revenue and engagement.
A rejuvenation-focused strategy can lead to strong improvements in cash flow and operational efficiency. For instance, with SaaS, content owners looking to reduce their costs can send their content to the cloud for remote production and securely distribute it with low latency to their affiliates or subscribers through the public cloud, using only the resources they want, only when they need it.
Win-Win
The cloud brings advanced opportunities for media and telecommunications companies, which can differentiate from the competition and create new revenue streams while reducing operational costs.
Ateme has already helped others move to the cloud. For example, it has recently enabled VOD transcoding in the cloud for a tier-one service provider, optimising both costs and performance. The solution was launched in production end of 2021 and involved advanced workflows with OTT packaging, DAI, and audience measurement.
Want to learn more? Meet Ateme at Broadcast Asia in booth 5K2-0.
Visit https://www.ateme.com