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DATA CENTRE VERSUS PUBLIC CLOUD “Cloud means different things to different people. For some, it’s a private data centre, made up of racks full of standard computer servers; for others, it’s a public cloud provider like AWS, Azure or Google, which make their own computers,” explains Pixel Power CEO James Gilbert. A private data centre invariably offers broadcasters more flexibility in infrastructure than a public cloud provider, since it may be possible to install dedicated hardware equipment or even some SDI infrastructure if needed. Public cloud implementation is different: there is no possibility of changing the infrastructure, so the solution must be able to work within the constraints of the specific cloud offering. But there are many reasons broadcasters are considering deploying some or all of their content delivery in the public cloud. Gilbert says: “If you’re a media business, your focus isn’t going to be on running data
playout devices, which were capable of collapsing several hardware functions into a single device. However, graphics, DVE and subtitling would still rely on dedicated hardware boxes, as these functions are more specialised and require extra computing power that goes beyond what an underlying general-purpose computer can provide. Today, general-purpose computing power is continuing to increase and IP standards for video and audio streams are evolving fast. New integrated playout vendors have emerged with experience in areas like graphics and subtitling, and hardware devices have been completely replaced by software modules, with SDI transports replaced by IP streams. The dedicated hardware is gone, and the complete linear playout chain is pure software. This means that it can be virtualised and deployed in a private data centre or public cloud.
centres, it’s going to be on creating content; content that inspires your viewers. You don’t want to be concerned with building and maintaining a big infrastructure project.” The public cloud can be purchased on a usage basis, so there’s no need to invest up front in hardware infrastructure; it can be scaled up or down depending on changing market and business needs; and most public cloud vendors offer a range of different virtual machine types with varying degrees of computing power if more features need to be added. Furthermore, most public cloud vendors offer a wide range of locations, which may be useful for legal, commercial and practical purposes. If there is a festival or sports event that a broadcaster wants to cover for a short amount of time, they can quickly and cost-effectively launch a new channel in the cloud and take it off the service line-up once the event is finished. In addition, cloud playout simplifies disaster recovery, since a
CLOUD MEANS DIFFERENT THINGS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE
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