Ramp’s enterprise video caching eCDN is a standards-based solution that supports live and on-demand video from virtually all streaming protocols. It brings video closer to viewers to create a high-quality viewing experience for everyone. Learn the five benefits of Ramp OmniCache.
Companies have realized the value of video to connect with employees wherever they work. Despite the advantages of video, its impact on bandwidth can lead to network performance problems. More importantly, a poor viewing experience completely erodes the value video brings to the table.
An enterprise content delivery network—or eCDN—allows you to deliver high-quality video to anyone, anywhere on the corporate network without bringing down mission-critical business operations. If you stream both live broadcasts and video on demand (VOD), you’ll yield the most benefits from an enterprise video caching solution like Ramp OmniCache.
Here are just a few of the many benefits of Ramp’s enterprise video caching solution.
Vendor Neutral
Many enterprises use more than one video platform. You might have one for CEO town halls, one for learning and development, and yet another for your digital signage. It would be complete chaos if you had to deploy and manage a unique video distribution infrastructure for each of your streaming platforms.
It’s true. Some streaming platform vendors offer a built-in CDN or eCDN as part of their solution. But most of those are proprietary and only work with their respective platform. Ramp OmniCache is deliberately vendor neutral and designed to support any HTML5 video streaming, as well as legacy solutions such as Microsoft Silverlight (Smooth Streaming) and Adobe Flash’s HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS).
For enterprises that distribute non-HTML5 video, OmniCache can generate HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) from encoders supporting RTP or be combined with a media server such as Wowza Streaming Engine™ to ensure complete coverage from a single enterprise delivery solution.
We believe an eCDN can and should be able to retrieve and redistribute video from any video source. Having an “open solution” simplifies management and gives you the flexibility to swap out streaming solutions as your needs change.
Live and VOD
Enterprise video caching is the only eCDN technology that works as efficiently for on-demand video as it does for live streaming. Unlike all-purpose caching solutions, Ramp OmniCache is purpose-built to store and distribute large media. It’s designed to minimize latency while maximizing efficiency.
Ramp OmniCache has a fast cache in memory for serving live video and a slower, disk-based cache for longer term storage and playback of recorded video. Whether live or on-demand, it can hold an entire video in memory, giving users the ability to replay, rewind and fast forward. Think of it as your workplace DVR.
Because OmniCache supports both live and VOD, it can easily be the only streaming distribution infrastructure you need.
Simplified Management
Unlike many cache solutions, Ramp’s enterprise video cache is a software-only solution. Because it is not a physical appliance, you enjoy all the benefits of managing and maintaining software over hardware. It can be installed on existing server resources—virtual or physical. New OmniCache instances can be turned up as needed, and shut down when not, consistent with any virtualization-/cloud-ready software.
Ramp’s management platform is an easy-to-use, web-based interface for configuring, administering and monitoring your entire eCDN environment. OmniCache networks can scale rapidly by creating profiles with settings that are pushed to all OmniCaches. Centralizing the configuration ensures all OmniCache nodes are aware of the full deployment, allowing advanced features such as routing and intelligent sourcing to work seamlessly across the entire network.
In addition, you don’t need to deploy client software or plugins on viewer devices with Ramp’s enterprise video caching solution. When you configure and deploy OmniCache, it automatically and transparently directs your users to the eCDN. So, you get maximum eCDN coverage without burdening user devices.
Secure
Ramp’s enterprise video caching solution deploys 100% on premises, behind your firewall, putting the entire infrastructure and management under the control of your IT department.
Access to videos is protected in multiple ways. First, to access a video, users must pass authentication and authorization checks at the video content management system (VCMS). The VCMS is responsible for determining which content users are authorized to view.
Video traffic is then encrypted while in transit and at rest, so your data is protected at all times. OmniCache uses HTTP(S) encryption to ensure video traffic cannot be snooped.
Read our paper, Securing the Distribution of Enterprise Video Streams, to learn more about Ramp eCDN security.
Real-Time Monitoring and Analytics
Ramp’s enterprise video caching solution gathers and exposes advanced diagnostics and insights via our management platform. This gives administrators a complete view of key performance indicators and quality of experience (QoE) information for the eCDN and any video asset. Analytics include aggregated and detailed data on network performance and the number of viewers by node, video and location. You can view data from individual events or videos, or look at key metrics over time.
During a live event, you can monitor network performance and QoE in real-time, allowing you to quickly respond to any issues before viewers even realize there’s a problem. You can see CPU utilization, memory consumption and cache performance, allowing you to identify and correct any misconfigured, overloaded or faulty nodes.
In addition to the reports available through the management platform, you can also export your data to external reporting tools. This allows you to perform a detailed analysis specific to your environment.
Enterprise Video Caching from Ramp
Ramp OmniCache is a vendor-neutral enterprise caching solution that supports both live and on-demand video. It brings video closer to viewers to deliver a high-quality, stable video experience to everyone on your network. OmniCache also reduces costs and complexity because it requires no proprietary hardware, customized players, or software clients on viewing devices.
Read Flawless Video Streaming to Any Device on Any Network for a technical deep dive into Ramp OmniCache. It covers everything from how our enterprise video caching solution works to the capabilities and features that makes it the most efficient video caching solution.
1 Survey Insight: Enterprise Video, ITDM Perspectives – North America Q3 2019, Wainhouse Research
