Expanding Your Streaming Infrastructure

Expanding Existing Infrastructure
As an enterprise looks to increase streaming capacity, there are four common methods of expanding infrastructure for streaming media. Internally, a company can choose hardware-based multicasting, software-based grid delivery, and hardware-based caching devices. Externally, there’s outsourcing delivery to a secure CDN, thus bypassing the internal network worry completely. The strategic objectives served by these various options are to cut WAN load, increase start-up speed, localize delivery, centralize management, and provide user monitoring, to name a few.

Single-Site Streaming
On the simple end, where there’s only one location with significant LAN bandwidth, a single streaming server can be enhanced with multiple or faster network cards and the server connected to the core backbone. Resources used on a streaming server are relatively low, and many concurrent sessions can be supported.

Multi-Site Software Streaming
Where increased usage occurs in a location remote from the streaming server, the problem lies in aggregate use of the wide-area bandwidth. Enterprises tend to purchase bandwidth based on average usage and a proportion of "head room," rather than coping with the often-temporary peaks caused by bandwidth-hungry video.

As noted previously, many enterprises are hitting a ceiling with their current bandwidth limitations and must look for ways to expand their concurrent user limits, possibly moving into live communications. Multicasting is beneficial for live events where one copy of a stream leaves the streaming server and is replicated throughout the components in the network infrastructure. Large numbers of concurrent users are possible without drain on the network. Given modern network equipment, enabling multicasting on a network can simply be a task of planning and configuration rather than further capital investment.

The latest way of increasing streaming capacity is utilizing the mass of idle PCs on a network in a method called grid-delivery multicasting, as found in offerings from the likes of Abacast and Kontiki. Grid-delivery multicasting provides a cost-effective solution by allowing companies to take advantage of existing computing and network capacity to deliver digital content. Distribution starts at one central server, but each user’s PC that receives the file can become a server and service other requests on the network. After one user receives a file, subsequent requests for the file on that LAN would be served locally from previous recipients, preserving WAN bandwidth.

Multi-Site Hardware Caching
More straightforward is the deployment of caching devices at the remote locations. These can be configured to store and serve content locally, caching the first viewer’s stream for local delivery to subsequent viewers or creating multiple local copies of an incoming live stream. This is the approach used by most of the bigger CDNs.

For the enterprise, however, this requires the purchase and maintenance of a network of extra boxes. This method also presents a challenge when updating versions of existing content, because it takes time for the updated content to propagate throughout the caching network. However, many larger companies already utilize a caching infrastructure for software distribution. With some strategic planning, this existing infrastructure could easily and cost-effectively become stream-ready.

Outsourced Content Delivery Networks
The last option is simply to outsource streaming to a secure CDN. These vendors have extensive global networks, some using physical servers around the world and others utilizing peer-to-peer arrangements, which can easily handle live and on-demand streaming to a huge amount of concurrent users. CDNs also have a high degree of built-in redundancy that increases delivery reliability. Furthermore, the management portals of such vendors typically provide easy access to extensive usage reports in order to better understand viewer behavior.

To take advantage of the CDN’s vast infrastructure, the enterprise must have Internet entry points at its many locations that query the CDN directly, enabling the CDN vendors to allocate its optimal resources. Many large global companies use Internet hub access points at key locations, which creates a bottleneck that unfortunately defeats the purpose of using the CDN. Hardware caching may then be the better option.

Regardless of which expansion strategy you choose, don’t forget about another critical component: a solid content creation tool. Creating content should be easy for the average business publisher. It should also minimize or eliminate IT involvement, and be cost-effective—using installed videoconferencing equipment, for example. There are many content-creation tools on the market with varying levels of functionality such as Accordent’s PresenterPlus and Sonic Foundry’s MediaSite Live, as well as others like Media Publisher, Inc.’s Media Publisher, which encompasses a centralized management platform for all video communication technologies. All these tools put a user-friendly front-end to creating rich media as well as providing the content management and publishing element.

When to Outsource
A common question facing enterprises today is when to outsource to an external CDN. An organization should weigh costs against capabilities, including the CDN’s global presence. For on-demand content, the answer can be as soon as your budget can support the minimum monthly CDN charge, either through cost avoidance or through added streaming revenue. Several other factors might indicate that it’s time to outsource:
• internal costs for everything (software, hardware, management, operations) exceed external costs
• you need to start up quickly (turning it on overnight)
• there are many unknowns about audience size, access time, etc.
• you don’t want to deal with the infrastructure