Happy Multicast Monday! In my last post, I talked about building a foundation for business video success with an eCDN for video distribution. To recap, video uses a massive amount of bandwidth, and if you haven’t prepared your network with an enterprise content delivery network (eCDN), you’re in for an epic fail.
So today, I thought I’d go into the questions you need to ask when choosing the right eCDN for your organization.
What impact will it have on my network?
Save yourself the headache. Choose an eCDN for video distribution that is CMS-platform source agnostic and works with the technology investments you’ve already made. Look for an HLS-compatible solution that overlays your existing network infrastructure and doesn’t require proprietary media servers and/or video players.
Can a eCDN for video distribution be reliable?
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: If your viewers experience buffering, latency or jitter, they won’t bother to watch it. All that work for nothing. Make sure your eCDN is resilient and can handle packet loss. Chose one with bandwidth-smoothing technologies, real-time monitoring and built-in failover. In addition, think through how you will test your network in advance of live events.
Is it secure?
Security is a priority. Period. Which means you need to find an eCDN for video distribution that keeps your videos “in the family.” Some solutions like peer-to-peer (P2P) use whatever resources are available on your network, including personal devices connected to external servers, to distribute video—which puts your network at risk. Also, find a solution that provides a layer of encryption, an in-memory key and PKI certifications to prevent unauthorized transmissions of your video streams.
Does it support my current—and future—video environment?
In case you missed it, Adobe announced it will end-of-life Flash, making HTML5 video the new industry standard. Your eCDN for video distribution should not only support HTLM5, but every video platform you use today. Moving to a standards-based delivery method gives you the flexibility you need to protect your investment.
Can it scale?
Your enterprise content delivery system needs to do more than run efficiently. It also needs to scale and evolve with your organization. It doesn’t matter if your webcast is flawless if only 10 people sitting in a conference room can watch it. The number of people who watch your business videos matters (I bet internal comms asks you, “How many viewers?”), so make sure your eCDN covers every single employee regardless of their location.
How will I prove ROI with an eCDN for video distribution?
Speaking of numbers, confirm you can derive the right kind of analytics. You’ll want to access both real-time and archived analytics to understand every element of your video streams. You should be able to easily access actional data, such as viewer location/device and overall network performance.
Are you ready to learn more how an eCDN for video distribution can save your network and improve viewer experience, drop us a message. Ramp is 100 percent focused on helping you resolve network congestion created by video behind the firewall.
