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ContentsWelcome to the Cloud Page 2What are the Financial
Benefits Page 2Analyzing the Cost/Benefit Tipping Point Page
3Technical Limitations of Cloud: Moving Content To/From the Cloud
Page 4Understanding Cloud Architectures Page 5Maximizing
Performance and Throughput Page 6How Safe is the Cloud? Page
7Beyond the Cloud Horizon Page 8About Telestream Page 8
IntroductionPerhaps your media company has a new business
opportunity that requires swift transcoding of your vast media
archive? Or maybe your department just got a huge transcoding
project you didnt expect involving multiscreen, VOD or OTT
delivery?
Bursts in demand, new business opportunities, and online
delivery are among the driving forces behind the growing trend to
migrate video transcoding and storage workflows to the cloud. In
many cases, the directive to investigate cloud transcoding is
coming from upper-level management where theres a reluctance to
spend money to expand the on-premise data center.
If your boss has asked you to migrate your transcoding workflow
to the cloud, you undoubtedly have many questions and concerns that
need to be resolved right away.
Bursts in demand, new business opportunities, and online
delivery
are among the driving forces behind the growing trend to
migrate video transcoding and storage workflows to the
cloud.
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Migrating Video Transcoding Workflows to the Cloud
A Guide to
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Welcome to the CloudThe first assurance we can give you is that
you dont have to replace your existing infrastructure with a
cloud-based solution. The cloud is simply a new technology platform
that gives your facility the elastic capacity to handle peaks and
lulls in production demand without over-provisioning or
over-burdening your existing infrastructure.
A well-crafted cloud transcoding and storage strategy affords
media pros many creative, operational and financial benefits
including:
Performing transcoding tasks on-premise or in the cloud,
depending upon which can handle it best.
Ramping up for increased transcoding without negatively
impacting your daily operations. The cloud offers near-instant
provisioning of transcod-ers and serversscalability sufficient for
the needs of the job.
Exploring creative business opportunities to stay competitive.
Outsourcing to the cloud decreases start-up capital equipment
costs.
Setting up cloud transcoding capacity in minutes, compared to
the days or months it would take to build out the data center.
Streamlining distribution to online destinations, such as CDNs,
YouTube, OTT services, social media platforms and other
Internet-based media and broadcast outlets.
Generating on-the-fly renditionssuch as formats, bit rates,
codecs and resolutionsto optimize content for viewing on connected
devices like smart phones, iPads, gaming consoles, laptops and
other connected, mobile devices.
Facilitating creative collaboration between col-leagues,
partners and other parties around the world.
Enabling global access to mission critical media files and
computing resources by authorized users anytime or anywhere.
Allowing the upload of media assets, such as news and sports
footage captured by citizen journalists and other contributors
worldwide. The files can then be processed in the cloud and
distributed via the Internet.
Offering disaster recovery of media assets should inclement
weather, power outages, floods or other adverse events impact your
data center.
Giving developers access to an infrastructure that allows them
to test their new ideas and concepts.
The biggest challenge to getting started is to find a cloud
service provider that really understands the rigors and demands of
the media & entertainment industry.
Ideally, your cloud service provider should offer a
user-friendly interface that dovetails your cloud work-flow with
your on-premise operation, forming a single, unified ecosystem that
can be centrally managed. Your cloud transcoding vendor should also
handle all the underlying cloud technology, upgrades and
mainte-nance in a timely, transparent way.
And you should be confident your transcoding is being done
according to your highest technical and quality standards, in a way
that consistently delivers an optimal viewing experience.
What are the Financial Benefits?One of the most compelling
reasons to migrate to cloud transcoding, and cloud computing in
general, is the cost. Depending upon the unique needs and
circum-stances of your media organization, you may find you can
save money by utilizing cloud transcoding services.
To determine how youll fare financially by migrating to cloud
transcoding you must conduct an in-depth cost/benefit analysis.
Instead of an up-front capital expendi-ture (capex) in new
hardware, software or networking equipment, cloud transcoding is an
operating expense (opex) with no up-front capital costs.
capex versus opex
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Cloud transcoding is based on pay-as-you-go pricing models such
as:
Per transaction Per gigabyte of source video Per hour of usage
Per minute of encoded content output Pre-purchased hours of
capacity Monthly or annual subscriptionsWith the discretionary
provisioning of cloud transcod-ing, you only pay for computing
resources as you use them. With this opex approach, users usually
save money because they dont have to invest as heavily, or in some
cases at all, in the following kinds of capex expenditures and
expenses within their data centers:
Computer hardware, networking & storage arrays Systems
integration, IT troubleshooting & mainte-
nance Perpetual software licenses & upgrades Equipment
leases (annual pricing including
support) Service & support contracts Computer rooms Air
conditioning Smoke detectors & sprinkler systems Real estate or
space costs Electricity and back-up power generators
High-performance broadband services Specially trained IT
personnel
Equipment owners often allocate 30% of the initial price of
purchased gear annually simply for ongoing technol-ogy-refresh,
making it a significant and recurring line item on their budgets.
The cost of refreshing technology also makes it harder to achieve a
timely return on investment, before the equipment reaches its end
of life.
With the reduction or elimination of these capital expenditures,
its easy to see how cloud transcoding can be financially enticing
for both media organizations and their financial backers.
Financial officers at media organizations often believe that
ongoing capital investments in their on-premise data centers will
not yield them any appreciable new benefits, except to keep the
technology current. Venture capital firms also shy away from
funding companies that plan to build out a massive data center.
They prefer that these companies use cloud-based services and put
their money into processing and people, not computer systems theyll
upgrade or discard in two or three years.
In the cloud model, the cost of maintaining the data center and
keeping the technology fresh is built into the service. All of
those upgradesincluding support for new formatsare taken care of by
the cloud provider in a way thats timely and transparent to the
user.
Analyzing the Cost/Benefit Tipping PointThe hourly rate for
cloud transcoding is generally higher than the calculated hourly
rate for purchased hardware, software and support over a specific
time period. But with the cloud approach, when you shut down
unnec-essary capacity, the expenses also decline, resulting in
additional savings.
Conversely, when media companies build-out their on-premise data
centers to provision for periods of high demand, and that demand
subsides, they find them-selves continuing to pay for costly
capital equipment that sits idle, which is very inefficient.
Over-provisioned infrastructure will by definition sit idle for
much of the time. However, if you have no available capacity in
your local data center, you may have to reprioritize the workload
or renegotiate the delivery of certain obligations. When cloud
transcoding is an option, surges in production volume can be
seamlessly and cost-efficiently absorbed by cloud services. And
cloud services can be immediately curtailed when work slows
down.
Its important to note that if your facility handles a very high
volume of transcoding on an ongoing basis, such as a
round-the-clock operation, you may find that based on software
licensing and provisioned hardware, its more expensive to do it in
the cloud versus with your own equipment.
Is your transcoding worksteady & round-the-clockor in bursts
& peaks?
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A break-even analysis that estimates capacity demand,
over-provisioning requirements and infrastructure costs can
determine where this crossover or tipping point is so your facility
can operate at peak efficiency. If you go beyond this tipping
pointwhether its a certain number of hours or productivity level,
etc.the cloud will cost you more than if you were using your own
equipment.
You find the tipping point by comparing what you would spend to
transcode a certain peak capacity of video on your premises versus
in the cloud. Some factors to consider when comparing on-premise
versus cloud price/performance are:
Annual cost you pay for hardware Annual cost of licensed
software Annual operating hours Annual server hours Number of
transcode servers Number of domain servers Hourly transcode
processing rate for the encoders
(real-time, faster, or slower) Hourly cloud software rate or
other cloud pricing Estimated workload volume Source format bitrate
to transcode Output format (such as adaptive bitrate, number of
layers, resolutions; Cable VOD MP2 essence, MP2 transport stream
in SD or HD; IPTV VOD H.264 essence, MP2 transport stream in SD or
HD.)
You can validate your assumptions and results by running tests
on various cloud services, many of which offer free trials.
Technical Limitations of Cloud: Moving Content To/From the
CloudSince uploading video files to the cloud is the single biggest
bottleneck to cloud transcoding, it doesnt make operational sense
to upload a program youre producing locally, say at a TV network,
if the goal is to broadcast it from the video play-out servers in
the same building it originated from.
Its faster to move enormous, high-bit rate content geared for
traditional broadcast from on-premise storage networks than from
the cloud to the play-out servers on the same LAN. This is because
you pay an upload penalty whenever you upload filesespecially HD,
2K or 4K/UHD resolutionto the cloud. The upload penalty is the
amount of time it takes for those files to upload.
Even if you need to deliver that media file to a CDN for online
distribution, it still makes more sense to transfer it over the
Internet from your data center because theres no penalty when its
done that way.
However, incurring the upload penalty makes sense if your media
will be:
Stored or archived in cloud-based storage Transferred for
cloud-based processing, and then
back to cloud storage Delivered to a cloud-based content
delivery
network (CDN) Distributed to online destinationsIts 10 to 15
times faster and easier to move files from cloud storage to other
cloud-based processors than it is to upload that source material
when its needed.
People whove successfully used cloud computing and storage
resources for media applications plan for media migration and
transcode times. A common strategy is to build upload time into the
production schedule and migrate finished content to cloud storage
while also keeping copies on local storage. If a power outage or
natural disaster strikes your facility, and youve upload-ed your
program content to the cloud ahead of time, you can continue to
operate, even using your smart phone to access the cloud
service.
So look for the optimal times to upload your media to the cloud.
And get in the habit of moving mezzanine masters to the cloud
immediately upon completion. Mezzanine masters are the final
masters youll cloud-transcode into all the renditions needed for
online and OTT service delivery via cloud-based CDNs or origin
servers.
And have any programs youve acquiredfrom your content production
partners worldwidedelivered to both your local servers and cloud
storage locations simultaneously. This will spare you the added
step of having to upload it.
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Its an increasingly common model for content owners and
distributors who possess content libraries to manage them in
inexpensive cloud storage and launch processing resources that are
collocated with the content whenever deliveries require new or
updated play-out formats. This is extremely compelling for
Internet-delivered media, especially OTT services, because its
faster and more efficient.
Compared to storage arrays on the premises, cloud storage is
relatively inexpensive and scalable up to hundreds of terabytes of
capacity, in multiple price/performance tiers. On-premise storage
arrays, which can be pricey, are a capex expense combined with
operating expenses, such as cooling, power, mainte-nance and space,
within your data center. Just shifting your redundant and back-up
storage to the inexpen-sive, scalable cloud storage can save you
considerable amounts of money over time.
Also, if you deal with HD, 2K, 4K/UHD or other high resolution
files, consider using an accelerated upload technology, such as
Aspera, to speed up the transfer of large video files from your
facility to the cloud. Aspera has demonstrated additional
acceleration of 6x (895 MB/sec) in S3 to EC2 transfers. Signiant is
another vendor that provides Internet I/O optimization.
Cloud implementations depend upon Internet I/O for media access
and migration. Look for applications that have built-in Internet
protocols for media migration and system monitoring, such as native
S3, http, ftp and sftp. And look for hybrid cloud solutions that
will let you capture snapshots of proven on-premise workflows into
your cloud environment to make it easier to set-up and launch cloud
instances.
Understanding Cloud ArchitecturesTo fully understand the
topology and ramifications of the cloud for video, including
transcode services, it helps to be familiar with terms like public
cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud.
When you interface an on-premise system with a cloud system,
this is a hybrid configuration. Hybrid clouds let you move and
manage large data files between the two environments seamlessly and
flexibly, such as demand bursts to be transcoded in the cloud.
Private clouds are a group of proprietary servers, storage and
network devices that are bought or leased by the user or
application owner. Theyre typically imple-mented on the premises
behind the enterprises firewall or in a collocated environment.
Private clouds are designed to provide high levels of security to
protect valuable assets and intellectual properties. They are
accessed and controlled exclusively by the owner, not shared.
Then theres the public cloud, a shared infrastructure that
consists of computers, networks, and bandwidth resources run by
popular public cloud service providers including Amazon, Microsoft
and Google. Unlike private clouds, public cloud platforms are not
solely owned or controlled by any single entity.
Public cloud providers have sophisticated geographi-cally
dispersed data centers filled with racks of servers and networking
gear. They leverage their global computing resources to offer
developers the building blocks they need to offer their own branded
cloud-based services, such as encoding/transcoding, storage,
content delivery and/or other computing services.
These vendors can configure their public cloud-based services as
managed private clouds that pass along the scalability, cost
savings, rapid deployment and other public cloud benefits to their
customers. But managed private cloud services also offer
integration and customization.
Telestreams Vantage Cloud service is implemented on Amazon Web
Services (AWS) public cloud. When Vantage customers integrate their
Vantage enter-prise-class transcoding software with Vantage Cloud,
which then becomes a hybrid configuration, they can burst into a
cloud environment in just minutes. The Vantage virtual domain
mirrors the familiar user-inter-face, workflows and quality outputs
customers have come to expect from Vantage Transcode Pro enterprise
software.
PUBLIC PRIVATE HYBRID
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When looking for cloud transcoding service providers, its
advantageous to collocate the storage on the same public cloud
platformor better yet within the same physical public cloud data
centerwhere the transcod-ing will be processed. The reason for this
is that the data transfers faster over shorter distances. So you
wouldnt want to locate your cloud storage archive on one public
cloud platform if the transcoding service you want to use is on
another.
The AWS public cloud platform implements different services to
support transcoding applications, including:
EC2 (Elastic Compute 2,) where the scalable, virtual private
servers are located for secure cloud computing of CPU-intensive
workloads
S3 (Simple Storage Service), which is for Web service-based
object storage
VPC (Virtual Private Cloud), which lets you provi-sion a
logically isolated section of the AWS cloud where you can launch
AWS resources in a virtual network you define. You have complete
control over your virtual networking environment, including
selection of your own IP address range, creation of subnets, and
configuration of route tables and network gateways.
Amazon Glacier, which is low-cost, long-term storage thats ideal
for archiveand more economi-cal than S3 because of slower access
times.
Amazon has close to a dozen geographically dispersed data
centers in many regions worldwide including: Northern Virginia,
Ireland, Singapore and Sydney. A complete list of regions may be
found here: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/rande.html
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On the AWS platform, there is a significant difference between
S3 and Amazon Glacier storage. S3 provides object storage, while
Amazon Glacier is an extremely low-cost, secure storage service for
data archive and online backup. Customers can store large or small
amounts of data reliably for as little as $0.01 per gigabyte per
month. To keep costs low, Amazon Glacier is optimized for
infrequently accessed data where a retrieval time of several hours
is acceptable. If you dont mind waiting for your transfers, youll
pay less operating out of Glacier storage.
Its also beneficial to choose your Amazon data center based on
its proximity to your contents desired destination. For example, if
your show is intended for distribution to viewers in the UK, your
best bet would be to upload, store and process that data at the
closest Amazon data center to the UK, which would be Ireland. Or
their Singapore data center if the content is for the Asian
market.
Maximizing Performance And Throughput Hybrid cloud
configurations are the best way to maximize performance and
throughput in a cloud-cen-tric transcoding workflow and ecosystem,
where the best infrastructure can be aligned to offer specific
solutions. Ideally, you want your on-premise workflow to match the
capabilities of your cloud environment.
Your hybrid cloud solution also needs to be very familiar and
user-friendly so you can focus on being innovative and creative.
Any IT complexity should be transparent to operators.
If your hybrid cloud workflow is unified, your cloud-based
deliverables will have all the same attributes and parameters that
your on-premise-based output delivers such as:
Pristine image quality Metadata processing Closed captioning
Audio mix/tracks Foreign language subtitles House standard formats
Audio/video bitrates Specific resolution and frame rates Ad
insertionIf any of these technical requirements are missing, you
will be forced into the infrastructure that provides the required
service, even though it may not be the most efficient choice. Be
forewarned that obtaining identical results from different software
is not expected. If different software is the basis for your cloud
and on-premise solution, you will need to re-test and re-validate
your output with your distribution partners.
One such unique demand is our need to distribute content via
different distribution platforms to reach viewers watching shows on
broadcast, mobile, social media and other screens anytime,
anywhere.
Content that is destined for broadcast from a network operations
center is best provided from the local on-premise production
infrastructure, while content being delivered to Internet, CDN, OTT
and other online venues can best be handled in the cloud.
Deploying your existing transcoding applications in the cloud
enables your custom applications to communi-cate with on-premise
and cloud infrastructures through identical APIs so your existing
integrations can be repurposed and extended with the cloud-based
components.
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Many successful cloud-transcode implementations rely on
arbitrage systems to optimize their workloads by making decisions
based on user-defined rules like:
Location of the source material Predicted loading time of the
various systems Requested delivery schedules Desired output format
Delivery methodsThis custom software automates the decision making
process to control the flow of transcode tasks and data between
on-premise and cloud services by accessing all the source
information and determining the best way to route the jobs. It can
also interface withor be contained withinthe centralized media
asset manage-ment (MAM) workflow, from a single user interface.
Serving as a high-level work order management system, this
software is programmed to accelerate the produc-tion cycle from
ingest to output by analyzing the situation. Upon analyzing key
factorslike how fast can certain source material be uploaded to the
cloud, whether it should be handled locally or in the cloud, and
whether the local pipeline has the capacity to handle itthe system
determines which platform can get the job done as quickly and
efficiently as possible.
This logic can get very complicated, and its unique to the
infrastructure, contracts and SLA terms for the partners. If your
facility can develop its own effective arbitrage system, it will
keep the workflow humming automatically, which will help you
maximize your capital, cloud and media resources.
How Safe Is The Cloud?When it comes to moving valuable
high-resolution media assets to a public cloud-based service, media
professionals are understandably cautious. They know that if they
dont protect their intellectual properties, these valuable media
assets could fall into the wrong hands and be pirated or misused at
great loss to the content creators.
But there are steps cloud users can take to ensure data security
at every level including:
The core public cloud infrastructure Integrated cloud vendor
applications On-premise network securityWhile Amazons AWS has
adopted enhanced security measures, its important to know if any of
the layers of your hybrid cloud may be compromised when integrat-ed
into the overall cloud workflow.
When considering a migration path to cloud transcod-ing and
storage workflows, be sure to research how each public cloud
platform handles the following:
Monitoring suspicious port scanning and intrusion attempts
Fending off a cyber attack Controlling access to physical data
centers by
personnel Encrypting data Verifying credentials before allowing
log-in (SSL/
TSL) Protecting transmissions (https, ftps, SSL) Preventing
unauthorized access to your data Monitoring application, server and
network usage Dealing with natural disasters and firesSecurity on
your premises is your companys responsi-bility, including
controlling access to your files, data and technology. You also
need to guard against social hacking. And make sure your operators
are properly trained in your security policies, such as never
emailing security credentials to unauthorized users.
That leaves the vendor application layer, which bridges your
premises with the cloud. Make sure the vendor you choose has
implemented secure access policies protecting your cloud
environment including:
Monitoring its virtual private network Verifying, encrypting and
rotating login credentials Isolating your cloud ecosystem from
other tenants
they may have Protecting API access Authenticating users upon
every cloud instance Providing secure communications between
on-premise control point and cloud instances
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www.telestream.net | [email protected] | tel +1 530 470
1300
Copyright 2015. Telestream, CaptionMaker, Episode, Flip4Mac,
FlipFactory, Flip Player, Lightspeed, ScreenFlow, Switch, Vantage,
Wirecast, GraphicsFactory, MetaFlip, and Split-and-Stitch are
registered trademarks and Pipeline, MacCaption, and e-Captioning
are trademarks of Telestream, LLC. All other trademarks are the
property of their respective owners. January 2015
Beyond The Cloud HorizonMigrating to the cloud is more than a
trend. Its the future. Benefits like cost-savings, instant
provisioning, elastic scalability, space savings, global access and
increased productivity are too enticing to ignore.
Migrating your transcoding workflow to the cloud gives you the
competitive edge that comes from managing your overhead, resources,
workload, and quality output in a competitive media landscape.
When you see the cloud as an expansion of your technology
toolkit, rather than an unsettling change, you begin to see new
possibilities to grow your business.
With instant provisioning and pay-as-you-go pricing, youll be
able to hit the ground running whenever a promising new business
opportunity arises. And youll have the freedom and flexibility to
take immediate action to bring new entertainment content and
services to market faster while your ideas are still fresh.
About TelestreamTelestream provides world-class live and
on-demand digital video tools and workflow solutions that allow
consumers and businesses to transform video on the desktop and
across the enterprise. Many of the worlds most demanding media and
entertainment companies as well as a growing number of users in a
broad range of business environments, rely on Telestream products
to streamline operations, reach broader audiences and generate more
revenue from their media.
These companies choose to work with Telestream as they know they
will get a trusted and highly skilled technical partner. Telestream
prides itself on taking a true consultancy approach to customer
relationships and is known for providing unparalleled customer
service and support.
Telestream products span the entire digital media lifecycle,
including video capture and ingest; live and on-demand encoding and
transcoding; captioning; playback and inspection, delivery, and
live streaming; as well as automation and orchestration of the
entire workflow.
To Learn MoreVisit us at: www.telestream.net, or call us at:
1.530.470.1300.
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