Is it time for an enterprise streaming strategy makeover? With quarantine, everything changed. Not just personally, but also professionally.
Video—whether video conferencing or streaming video—rapidly became the must have business tool. Not just to communicate with one another, but also to communicate critical information to employees about current events. Many of our customers are hosting weekly CEO webcasts every week with upwards of 80% of employees attending.
To meet the immediate need for video everywhere, you—or your peers in other departments—signed up for tools without considering the long term implications. Read our recent blog to learn the 10 questions you should ask when choosing and enterprise streaming platform.
In addition, you’ve probably uncovered points of weakness you didn’t even realize you had. For example, can your network handle the increase in streaming video for employee communications and training when everyone returns to the office?
Right now, things might be a bit messy. With 2021 on the horizon, it’s probably time to renovate, tidy up and get your enterprise streaming strategy updated. Think of it as “Extreme Makeover: Enterprise Streaming Strategy Edition.”
Renovating your enterprise streaming strategy
As part of your enterprise streaming strategy remodel, you need to make sure a few elements—like your network—are in good working order. Think of your network as plumbing. New bathroom fixtures, countertops and flooring are great, but if the plumbing doesn’t work, you’ll have to contend with repairs in the future.
Video is bandwidth intensive, and the higher the quality, the more bandwidth it uses. Most corporate networks can’t handle the volume of video traffic that comes from the cloud over the internet connection nor the bandwidth consumed by video traversing far-reaching corners of the network.
You need to consider an eCDN (enterprise content delivery network) to optimize the distribution of video, saving bandwidth for business-critical operations. Think of it as the most reliable and efficient pipeline you can have in your home.
How to Remodel Without Replumbing
When it comes to your streaming video platform, standardizing on a single one rarely satisfies every use case. Just like you can’t use a kitchen faucet in your shower. You might need one platform for all-employee webcasts, another for learning and development programs, and yet another for digital signage. In fact, 77% of organizations are using two or more streaming video platforms.1
Because eCDNs are network overlays, deploying and managing unique distribution infrastructure for each platform is an IT nightmare—and fortunately unnecessary. Many video platform providers offer an eCDN as part of their solution. But most of those eCDNs are proprietary and work only with the provider’s platform.
To overcome this obstacle, consider an eCDN that is vendor neutral and can be used to support all streaming platforms in your corporate network.
It should have the ability to retrieve and redistribute video from any video source. This simplifies both the deployment and management of the eCDN. It also provides maximum flexibility as your enterprise streaming strategy evolves over time.
Think of it in terms of plumbing in your house. Regardless of any renovations you make in your home, having solid plumbing in place can stand the test of time.
If you’re ready for an enterprise streaming strategy makeover, request a demo and read our blog titled What is eCDN?
1 Survey Insight: Enterprise Video, ITDM Perspectives – North America Q3 2019, Wainhouse Research
