Meeting New Demands In Media Distrobution

Business needDigicon needed to meet the high-

volume storage requirements for

high-definition, live transmission and

on-demand video distribution.

Solution

The company deployed Dell Storage

to deliver the high performance and

scalability required by new forms of

content distribution.

Benefits• Elimination of system downtime

delivers high quality service

to customers

• New services can be implemented

within days with quick storage

provisioning instead of taking more

than a month previously

• Pay-as-you-go storage means

transparency in decision making

and lower cost services

• Scope for future business

expansion as content distribution

quality increases

Solutions at a glance• Storage

• Consulting

• Enterprise Support

Meeting new demands in media distributionDigicon gains flexibility in media service delivery through high-performance and highly scalable storage

Customer profile

Company Digicon

Industry Arts, Entertainment

& Media

Country Japan

Website www.digi-c.co.jp

“We can now propose new services at lower cost. As we have eliminated hardware procurement, we no longer have to pass on that initial cost to the customer. We can explain the benefits of the new idea and still be confident that our storage operations will remain stable. Most of all, our customers understand how our system helps us maintain the quality of our services.” Hiroki Ohkawa, Team Leader, Network Service Team, Digicon

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“ Once we switch over to 4K video, we will have to deal with data volumes four times that of conventional HD. That will translate to a decimal point jump in our storage requirements. Looking to the future, we need a storage solution that we can scale simply and easily. I look forward to working with Dell as we continue to develop solutions to cope with these changes.” Hideki Yamaguchi, President and CEO, Digicon

The company has been quick to provide services tailored to smartphone platforms such as iOS and Android, and is a one-stop shop for many services from shooting video to encoding, live transmission and on-demand streaming.

Digicon was established in 1995, when the internet was becoming integrated into mainstream media. The company based its business around internet services, proposing solutions for the distribution of digital content. With the advent of high quality video on the internet and the diversification of mobile devices, Digicon had to address issues resulting from the high volume of storage required, including cost-effective ways to increase its storage capacity, decrease its maintenance workload, and reduce the risk of downtime resulting from hardware failure.

Supporting a range of content delivery platformsWith live transmission and on-demand video provisioning services, Digicon has to ensure that the large numbers of viewers connecting over Android, iOS, USTREAM or other content delivery networks can enjoy the images and content. Digicon also offers cloud video distribution, which is also referred to as one source/multiscreen distribution. Looking to the future, as wearable devices become mainstream and the uptake of 4K video draws closer, Digicon has to ensure it has the infrastructure in place to provide these services.

Improving the efficiency of storage infrastructure In recent years, content has shifted to high-definition, and with more content being retained, larger and highly scalable storage capacity is required. Previously, when Digicon exceeded its existing storage, the company simply added more, which meant having to maintain an ever-growing number of storage units. Everything about this approach took time – procuring the hardware, installing the new storage, and then dealing with wear and tear and the eventual maintenance problems and failures. The cost and human resource requirements were becoming a serious concern for the technical division at Digicon.

Digicon develops, supports and transmits media across the

internet, and provides services such as website creation with

the aim of combining broadcast and telecommunications in

the delivery of services to distribute high quality video.

Products & Services

Services

Dell Storage Consulting Services

Dell Support Services

– Dell ProSupport for Enterprise

Hardware

Dell Storage SC8000 array

Dell Storage SC200 expansion enclosure

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As a result, Digicon drew up plans to implement a new, scalable, cost-efficient and easily installed storage system. It also needed a solution with solid operational support, as well as highly robust, high-performance and stable operations. With these in mind, the company began to look at vendors and hardware. The company considered several solutions and selected Dell to implement Dell Storage. Digicon deployed two Dell Storage SC8000 arrays to deliver redundancy, and eight Dell Storage SC200 expansion enclosures that enable the company to scale its capacity within a small data center space.

Hiroki Ohkawa, Team Leader, Network Service Team, Digicon, says, “We were familiar with Dell as we had used Dell ProSupport for Enterprise on another project. In considering other options, it became clear that Dell Storage met our main requirements relating to cost, scalability and support. A Dell engineer paid us a visit and explained the performance that would be delivered, which resulted in us placing our trust in the solution.”

Pay-as-you-go solution delivers long-term cost efficienciesEngaging in a pay-as-you-go model means Digicon was able to control its costs. The company considered using online storage as a solution, but found Dell Storage was more cost-efficient per terabyte than online storage. The new storage solution delivers a total of 200 terabytes of storage. The agreement between Dell and Digicon specifies that 50 percent of the storage volume is covered by a fixed monthly fee, and for the remaining storage capacity, the charge is per terabyte.

Meeting consumer needs for quick, low cost servicesThe ability to easily and cost-efficiently add storage when required ensures Digicon maintains its high quality

services. And when a new idea or service is proposed, because each additional terabyte of storage has a clear cost, decision making is accurate and transparent. Ohkawa says, “We can now propose new services at lower cost. As we have eliminated hardware procurement, we no longer have to pass on that initial cost to the customer. We can explain the benefits of the new idea and still be confident that our storage operations will remain stable. Most of all, our customers understand how our system helps us maintain the quality of our services.”

Cost efficiencies combined with a stable storage platform are already benefiting Digicon and its customer base. With 200 terabytes of total storage ready to use on a pay-as-you-go basis, Digicon is now able to implement new services rapidly, even if it requires a large amount of storage. Removing the hardware limitations has opened up the possibilities for new ideas. For example, if a new service requires 10 terabytes of storage, the storage can be assigned instantly to the new project, and it only takes one or two days to implement.

Eliminating service interruptionsTo avoid any interruptions to its service provisioning, the transition to the new Dell Storage solution occurred in less than two months. Dell Storage Consulting Services, in consultation with Digicon’s technical team, designed the storage infrastructure. Feroz Khan, Server Consultant, Technical Division, Digicon, says, “Previously we would have two or three HDD units fail each month, but in the eight months since the installation, we’ve had no problems or issues. We had several meetings with Dell engineers about our need to avoid technical issues, and we have a highly stable solution due to the levels of redundancy, the robust nature of the hardware, and 24 hours a day, 365 days a year monitoring from Dell ProSupport.”

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Future focused expansion These past few years have seen significant increases in data volumes as well as diversification in internet video content. Digicon sees this as an opportunity to overhaul its IT infrastructure and a real chance to enhance the business as the company looks to expand in the future. The growth in video content does not end with smartphones and high-definition video because newer devices and higher resolution quality are constantly in the pipeline.

Hideki Yamaguchi, President and CEO, Digicon, says, “Once we switch over to 4K video, we will have to deal with data volumes four times that of conventional HD. That will translate to a decimal point jump in our storage requirements. Looking to the future, we need a storage solution that we can scale simply and easily. I look forward to working with Dell as we continue to develop solutions to cope with these changes. For on-demand videos as well as live transmissions, from your mobile screen all the way up to 4K images, we are committed to developing and providing the best services for our customers both in quality as well as price-performance.”

Dell, the Dell logo, and Dell ProSupport are trademarks of Dell Inc. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Availability and terms of Dell Software, Solutions and Services vary by region. This case study is for informational purposes only. Dell makes no warranties – express or implied – in this case study. Reference Number: 10021040 © June 2015, Dell Inc. All Rights Reserved

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“ Previously we would have two or three HDD units fail each month, but in the eight months since the installation, we’ve had no problems or issues. We had several meetings with Dell engineers about our need to avoid technical issues, and we have a highly stable solution due to the levels of redundancy, the robust nature of the hardware, and 24 hours a day, 365 days a year monitoring from Dell ProSupport.” Feroz Khan, Server Consultant, Technical Division, Digicon