On-prem Vs. Cloud: Choosing the Right Encoding Method
On-premises or in the cloud? For Sorenson Media, the answer depends on two factors:
"Ultimately, when you talk cloud, what you're really talking about are two things: you're talking about virtualization and you're talking about business model," said the company's COO Eric Quanstrom. Virtualization can work at scale in a way that it couldn't only a brief time ago, he said, while the business model means a trade-off between capital expenses and operating expenses. It can be hard to forecast encoding server needs, he advised, and there are problems with purchasing too many or too few.
Quanstrom spoke at a red carpet interview during the recent Streaming Media East conference in New York. His company offers desktop, LAN-based, and cloud-based encoding solutions, and will help customers identify which is best for their needs.
"We really try to go in and identify what their workflow goals are. The nice thing about Sorenson is that we can operate pretty much in all of these spheres, including on the desktop," Quanstrom said.
He was especially positive about taking a hybrid approach: working mostly on-premises, but having the ability to go to the cloud when needed.
"Imagine, if you will, the ability to spin up a thousand servers in one day to process an entire video library. That's something that heretofore was kind of an impossibility and something that we're hearing requests for," Quanstrom added.
For more from Quanstrom, including news about Sorenson's new London and Los Angeles offices, watch the video below.
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