ContentsWelcome to the Cloud Page 2What are the Financial Benefits Page 3Analyzing the Cost/Benefit Tipping Point Page 3Moving Content & OTT Delivery Concerns Page 4Understanding Cloud Architectures Page 5Maximizing Performance and Throughput Page 6How Safe is the Cloud? Page 6Beyond the Cloud Horizon Page 7About Telestream Page 7

IntroductionBy 2024 SaaS delivery will dominate media production, distribution and live.

Broadcasters, media companies and content producers are moving work-flows to the cloud. According to Frost & Sullivan, in 2017, 26% of media processing across production, distribution and live applications was delivered via SaaS, and, by 2024, SaaS “will dominate.”

It’s no secret that some media companies are mandating either zero or extremely reduced CAPEX budgets, which cloud implementations obviously support. But beyond CAPEX reduction or elimination, utilizing hybrid and cloud-based media processing provides a more agile business model, where new channels and services can be launched quickly, and then easily scaled up, down or turned off, depending on success or failure.

“Bursts in demand, new business opportunities, and online delivery

are among the driving forces behind the growing trend to

migrate media processing workflows to the cloud.”

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Migrating Media Processing Workflows to the Cloud

A Guide to

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Perhaps your media company has a new business opportunity that requires swift transcoding of your vast media archive? Or maybe your department just got a huge transcoding project you didn’t expect involving multiscreen, VOD or OTT delivery?

Bursts in demand, new business opportunities, and online delivery are among the driving forces behind the growing trend to migrate video transcoding and storage workflows to the cloud. In many cases, the directive to investigate cloud transcoding is coming from upper-lev-el management where there’s a reluctance to spend money to expand the on-premise data center.

If your boss has asked you to migrate your media processing workflow to the cloud, you undoubtedly have many questions and concerns that need to be resolved right away.

Welcome to the CloudThe first assurance we can give you is that you don’t have to replace your existing infrastructure with a cloud-based solution. The cloud is simply a technology platform that gives your facility the elastic capacity to handle peaks and lulls in production demand without over-provisioning or over-burdening your existing infrastructure.

A well-crafted cloud media processing strategy affords media pros many creative, operational and financial benefits including:

• Performing transcoding tasks on-premise or in the cloud, depending upon which can handle it best.

• Ramping up for increased transcoding without negatively impacting your daily operations. The cloud offers near-instant provisioning of transcod-ers and servers—scalability sufficient for the needs of the job.

• Exploring creative business opportunities to stay competitive. Outsourcing to the cloud decreases start-up capital equipment costs.

• Setting up cloud media processing capacity in minutes, compared to the days or months it would take to build out the data center.

• Streamlining distribution to online destinations, such as CDNs, YouTube, OTT services, social media platforms and other Internet-based media and broadcast outlets.

• Generating on-the-fly renditions—such as formats, bit rates, codecs and resolutions—to optimize content for viewing on connected devices like smart phones, tablets, gaming consoles, laptops and other connected, mobile devices.

• Facilitating creative collaboration between col-leagues, partners and other parties around the world.

• Enabling global access to mission critical media files and computing resources by authorized users anytime or anywhere.

• Allowing the upload of media assets, such as news and sports footage captured by citizen journalists and other contributors worldwide. The files can then be processed in the cloud and distributed via the Internet.

• Offering disaster recovery of media assets should inclement weather, power outages, floods or other adverse events impact your data center.

• Giving developers access to an infrastructure that allows them to test their new ideas and concepts.

The biggest challenge to getting started is to find a cloud service provider that really understands the rigors and demands of the media & entertainment industry.

Ideally, your cloud service provider should offer a user-friendly interface that dovetails your cloud work-flow with your on-premise operation, forming a single, unified ecosystem that can be centrally managed. Your cloud transcoding vendor should also handle all the underlying cloud technology, upgrades and mainte-nance in a timely, transparent way.

And you should be confident your media processing is being done according to your highest technical and quality standards, in a way that consistently delivers an optimal viewing experience. capex

versus opex

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What are the Financial Benefits?One of the most compelling reasons to migrate to cloud for media processing, and cloud computing in general, is the cost. Depending upon the unique needs and circumstances of your media organization, you may find you can save money by utilizing cloud services.

To determine how you’ll fare financially by migrating to cloud, you must conduct an in-depth cost/benefit analysis. Instead of an up-front capital expenditure (CAPEX) in new hardware, software or networking equipment, cloud media processing is an operating expense (OPEX) with no up-front capital costs.

Cloud media processing is based on pay-as-you-go pricing models such as:

• Per transaction• Per gigabyte of source video• Per hour of usage• Per minute of encoded content output• Pre-purchased hours of capacity• Monthly or annual subscriptions

With the discretionary provisioning of cloud media processing, you only pay for computing resources as you use them. With this OPEX approach, users usually save money because they don’t have to invest as heavily, or in some cases at all, in the following kinds of CAPEX expenditures and expenses for their data centers:

• Computer hardware, networking & storage arrays• Systems integration, IT troubleshooting &

maintenance • Perpetual software licenses & upgrades• Equipment leases (annual pricing including

support)• Service & support contracts • Computer rooms• Air conditioning • Smoke detectors & sprinkler systems• Real estate or space costs• Electricity and back-up power generators• High-performance broadband services• Specially trained IT personnel

Equipment owners often allocate 30% of the initial price of purchased gear annually simply for ongoing technology-refresh, making it a significant and recurring line item on their budgets. The cost of refreshing technology also makes it harder to achieve a timely return on investment, before the equipment reaches its end of life. With the reduction or elimination of these capital expenditures, it’s easy to see how the cloud can be financially enticing for both media organizations and their financial backers.

Financial officers at media organizations often believe that ongoing capital investments in their on-premise data centers will not yield them any appreciable new benefits, except to keep the technology current. Venture capital firms also shy away from funding companies that plan to build out a massive data center. They prefer that these companies use cloud-based services and put their money into processing and people, not computer systems they’ll upgrade or discard in two or three years.

In the cloud model, the cost of maintaining the data center and keeping the technology fresh is built into the service. All of those upgrades—including support for new formats—are taken care of by the cloud provider in a way that’s timely and transparent to the user.

Analyzing the Cost/Benefit Tipping PointThe hourly rate for cloud transcoding is typically higher than the calculated hourly rate for purchased hardware, software and support over a specific time period. But with the cloud approach, when you shut down unnecessary capacity, the expenses also decline, resulting in additional savings.

Conversely, when media companies build-out their on-premise data centers to provision for periods of high demand, and that demand subsides, they find them-selves continuing to pay for costly capital equipment that sits idle, which is very inefficient.

Over-provisioned infrastructure will by definition sit idle for much of the time. However, if you have no available capacity in your local data center, you may have to reprioritize the workload or renegotiate the delivery of certain obligations. When cloud media processing is an option, surges in production volume can be seamlessly and cost-efficiently absorbed by cloud services. And cloud services can be immediately curtailed when work slows down.

Is your transcoding worksteady & round-the-clockor in bursts & peaks?

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It’s important to note that if your facility handles a very high volume of media processing on an ongoing basis, such as a round-the-clock operation, you may find that based on software licensing and provisioned hardware, it’s more expensive to do it in the cloud versus with your own equipment.

A break-even analysis that estimates capacity demand, over-provisioning requirements, and infrastructure costs can determine where this crossover or tipping point is—so your facility can operate at peak efficiency. If you go beyond this tipping point—whether it’s a certain number of hours or productivity level, etc.—the cloud will cost you more than if you were using your own equipment.

You find the tipping point by comparing what you would spend to transcode a certain peak capacity of video on your premises versus in the cloud. Some factors to consider when comparing on-premise versus cloud price/performance are:

• Annual cost you pay for hardware • Annual cost of licensed software• Annual operating hours• Annual server hours• Number of transcode servers• Number of domain servers• Hourly transcode processing rate for the encoders

(real-time, faster, or slower)• Hourly cloud software rate or other cloud pricing• Estimated workload volume • Source format bitrate to transcode• Output format (such as adaptive bitrate, number of

layers, resolutions; Cable VOD MP2 essence, MP2 transport stream in SD or HD; IPTV VOD H.264 essence, MP2 transport stream in SD or HD.)

You can validate your assumptions and results by running tests on various cloud services, many of which offer free trials.

Moving Content & OTT Delivery ConcernsSince uploading video files to the cloud is the single biggest bottleneck to cloud transcoding, it doesn’t make operational sense to upload a program you’re producing locally, say at a TV network, if the goal is to broadcast it from the video play-out servers in the same building it originated from.

It’s faster to move enormous, high-bit rate content geared for traditional broadcast from on-premise storage networks than from the cloud to the play-out servers on the same LAN. This is because you pay an upload penalty whenever you upload files—especially HD, 2K or 4K/UHD resolution—to the cloud. The upload penalty is the amount of time it takes for those files to upload.

Even if you need to deliver that media file to a CDN for online distribution, it still makes more sense to transfer it over the Internet from your data center because there’s no penalty when it’s done that way.

However, incurring the upload penalty makes sense if your media will be:

• Stored or archived in cloud-based storage• Transferred for cloud-based processing, and then

back to cloud storage• Delivered to a cloud-based content delivery

network (CDN) • Distributed to online destinations

It’s 10 to 15 times faster and easier to move files from cloud storage to other cloud-based processors than it is to upload that source material when it’s needed.

People who’ve successfully used cloud computing and storage resources for media applications plan for media migration and transcode times. A common strategy is to build upload time into the production schedule and migrate finished content to cloud storage while also keeping copies on local storage. If a power outage or natural disaster strikes your facility, and you’ve uploaded your program content to the cloud ahead of time, you can continue to operate, even using your smart phone to access the cloud service.

So, look for the optimal times to upload your media to the cloud. And get in the habit of moving mezzanine masters to the cloud immediately upon completion. Mezzanine masters are the final masters you’ll cloud-transcode into all the renditions needed for online and OTT service delivery via cloud-based CDNs or origin servers.

And have any programs you’ve acquired—from your content production partners worldwide—delivered to both your local servers and cloud storage locations simultaneously. This will spare you the added step of having to upload it.

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It’s an increasingly common model for content owners and distributors who possess content libraries to manage them in inexpensive cloud storage and launch processing resources that are collocated with the content whenever deliveries require new or updated play-out formats. This is extremely compelling for Internet-delivered media, especially OTT services, because it’s faster and more efficient.

Compared to storage arrays on the premises, cloud storage is inexpensive and scalable up to hundreds of terabytes of capacity, in multiple price/ performance tiers. On-premise storage arrays, which can be pricey, are a CAPEX expense combined with operating expenses, such as cooling, power, maintenance and space, within your data center. Even just shifting your redundant and back-up storage to the inexpensive, scalable cloud storage can save you considerable amounts of money over time.

Also, if you deal with HD, 2K, 4K/UHD or other high resolution files, consider using an accelerated upload technology, such as Aspera, to speed up the transfer of large video files from your facility to the cloud.

Cloud implementations depend upon Internet I/O for media access and migration. Look for applications that have built-in Internet protocols for media migration and system monitoring, such as native S3, http, ftp and sftp. And look for hybrid cloud solutions that will let you capture snapshots of proven on-premise workflows into your cloud environment to make it easier to set-up and launch cloud instances.

Understanding Cloud ArchitecturesTo fully understand the topology and ramifications of the cloud for video, including transcode services, it helps to be familiar with terms like public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud.

When you interface an on-premise system with a cloud system, this is a hybrid configuration. Hybrid clouds let you move and manage large data files between the two environments seamlessly and flexibly, such as demand bursts to be transcoded in the cloud.

Private clouds are a group of proprietary servers, storage and network devices that are bought or leased by the user or application owner. They’re typically implemented on the premises behind the enterprise’s firewall or in a collocated environment. Private clouds are designed to provide high levels of security to protect valuable assets and intellectual properties. They are accessed and controlled exclusively by the owner, not shared.

Then there’s the public cloud, a shared infrastructure that consists of computers, networks, and bandwidth resources run by popular public cloud service providers including Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Unlike private clouds, public cloud platforms are not solely owned or controlled by any single entity.

Public cloud providers have sophisticated geographically dispersed data centers filled with racks of servers and networking gear. They leverage their global computing resources to offer developers the building blocks they need to offer their own branded cloud-based services, such as encoding/transcoding, storage, content delivery and/or other computing services.

These vendors can configure their public cloud-based services as managed private clouds that pass along the scalability, cost savings, rapid deployment and other public cloud benefits to their customers. But managed private cloud services also offer integration and customization.

PUBLIC PRIVATE HYBRID

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When looking for cloud transcoding service providers, it’s advantageous to collocate the storage on the same public cloud platform—or better yet within the same physical public cloud data center—where the transcoding will be processed. The reason for this is that the data transfers faster over shorter distances. So, you wouldn’t want to locate your cloud storage archive on one public cloud platform if the transcoding service you want to use is on another.

Maximizing Performance and Throughput Hybrid cloud configurations are a good way to maximize performance and throughput in a cloud-centric media processing workflow and ecosystem, where the best infrastructure can be aligned to offer specific solutions.

Your hybrid cloud solution also needs to be very familiar and user-friendly, so you can focus on being innovative and creative. Any IT complexity should be transparent to operators.

If your hybrid cloud workflow is unified, your cloud-based deliverables will have all the same attributes and parameters that your on-premise-based output delivers such as:

• Pristine image quality• Metadata processing• Closed captioning• Audio mix/tracks• Foreign language subtitles• House standard formats• Audio/video bitrates• Specific resolution and frame rates• Ad insertion

If any of these technical requirements are missing, you will be forced into the infrastructure that provides the required service, even though it may not be the most efficient choice. Be forewarned that obtaining identical results from different software is not expected. If different software is the basis for your cloud and on-premise solution, you will need to re-test and re-validate your output with your distribution partners.

One such unique demand is our need to distribute content via different distribution platforms to reach viewers watching shows on broadcast, mobile, social media and other screens anytime, anywhere.

Content destined for broadcast from a network operations center is best provided from the local on-premise production infrastructure, while content being delivered to Internet, CDN, OTT and other online venues can best be handled in the cloud.

Deploying your existing transcoding applications in the cloud enables your custom applications to communicate with on-premise and cloud infrastructures through identical APIs so your existing integrations can be repurposed and extended with the cloud-based components.

Many successful cloud media implementations rely on arbitrage systems to optimize their workloads by making decisions based on user-defined rules like:

• Location of the source material• Predicted loading time of the various systems• Requested delivery schedules• Desired output format• Delivery methods

This custom software automates the decision-making process to control the flow of transcode tasks and data between on-premise and cloud services by accessing all the source information and determining the best way to route the jobs. It can also interface with—or be contained within—the centralized media asset management (MAM) workflow, from a single user interface.

Serving as a high-level work order management system, this software is programmed to accelerate the production cycle from ingest to output by analyzing the situation. Upon analyzing key factors—like how fast can certain source material be uploaded to the cloud, whether it should be handled locally or in the cloud, and whether the local pipeline has the capacity to handle it—the system determines which platform can get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

This logic can get very complicated, and it’s unique to the infrastructure, contracts and SLA terms for the partners. If your facility can develop its own effective arbitrage system, it will keep the workflow humming automatically, which will help you maximize your capital, cloud and media resources.

How Safe Is the Cloud?When it comes to moving valuable high-resolution media assets to a public cloud-based service, media profes-sionals are understandably cautious. They know that if they don’t protect their intellectual properties, these valuable media assets could fall into the wrong hands and be pirated or misused at great loss to the content creators.

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But there are steps cloud users can take to ensure data security at every level including:

• The core public cloud infrastructure• Integrated cloud vendor applications• On-premise network security

While public cloud providers have adopted enhanced security measures, it’s important to know if any of the layers of your hybrid cloud may be compromised when integrated into the overall cloud workflow.

When considering a migration path to cloud transcoding and storage workflows, be sure to research how each public cloud platform handles the following:

• Monitoring suspicious port scanning and intrusion attempts

• Fending off a cyber attack• Controlling access to physical data centers by

personnel• Encrypting data• Verifying credentials before allowing log-in (SSL/

TSL)• Protecting transmissions (https, ftps, SSL)• Preventing unauthorized access to your data• Monitoring application, server and network usage• Dealing with natural disasters and fires

Security on your premises is your company’s responsibility, including controlling access to your files, data and technology. You also need to guard against social hacking. And make sure your operators are properly trained in your security policies, such as never emailing security credentials to unauthorized users.

That leaves the vendor application layer, which bridges your premises with the cloud. Make sure the vendor you choose has implemented secure access policies protecting your cloud environment including:

• Monitoring its virtual private network• Verifying, encrypting and rotating login credentials• Isolating your cloud ecosystem from other tenants

they may have• Protecting API access• Authenticating users upon every cloud instance• Providing secure communications between

on-premise control point and cloud instances

Beyond the Cloud HorizonMigrating to the cloud is more than a trend. It’s happen-ing now. Benefits like cost-savings, instant provisioning, elastic scalability, space savings, global access and increased productivity are too enticing to ignore.

Migrating your media processing to the cloud gives you the competitive edge that comes from managing your overhead, resources, workload, and quality output in a competitive media landscape.

When you see the cloud as an expansion of your technology toolkit, rather than an unsettling change, you begin to see new possibilities to grow your business.

With instant provisioning and pay-as-you-go pricing, you’ll be able to hit the ground running whenever a promising new business opportunity arises. And you’ll have the freedom and flexibility to take immediate action to bring new entertainment content and services to market faster while your ideas are still fresh.

About TelestreamTelestream provides world-class live and on-demand digital video tools, workflow solutions and quality monitoring capabilities that allow consumers and businesses to transform video on the desktop and across the enterprise. Many of the world’s most demanding media and entertainment companies, and service providers, as well as a growing number of users in a broad range of business environments, rely on Telestream products to streamline operations, reach broader audiences, generate more revenue from and ensure the quality of their media.

Broadcasters and content producers, owners and distributors choose to work with Telestream as they know they will get a trusted and highly skilled technical partner. Telestream prides itself on taking a true consultancy approach to customer relationships and is known for providing unparalleled customer service and support.

To Learn MoreVisit us at: www.telestream.net, or call us at: 1.530.470.1300.

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www.telestream.net | info@telestream.net | tel +1 530 470 1300

Specifications subject to change without notice. Copyright © 2018 Telestream, LLC. Telestream, CaptionMaker, Episode, Flip4Mac, FlipFactory, Flip Player, Lightspeed, ScreenFlow, Switch, Vantage, Wirecast, GraphicsFactory, MetaFlip, and Split-and-Stitch are registered trademarks and Pipeline, MacCaption, e-Captioning, Tempo, VOD Producer, and Vidchecker are trademarks of Telestream, LLC. TitlerPro is a trademark of NewBlue, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. September 2018