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Optimizing Video Behind The Corporate Firewall

CMMA Blog

A big part of video in the enterprise is distribution. How do you optimize video traffic behind the firewall and prevent network congestion? It’s always one of the big challenges for network administrators, getting video to your viewers. Whether that video is coming from an on premises streaming platform or from the cloud, and whether it’s going out to 500, 5,000, or 500,000 viewers inside the enterprise, the network is going to be impacted.

The key role of an eCDN (enterprise content delivery network) is to reduce network strain by decreasing the amount of video that traverses the corporate firewall. The enterprise LAN itself has plenty of bandwidth, but the WAN links and the Internet connections are constrained. So, instead of having 10,000 users all requesting a stream and creating all that traffic across the network, you really want to have discrete streams that just hit a few edge devices.

People talk about common enterprise streaming infrastructure (CESI), so let’s understand what CESI is. Common enterprise streaming infrastructure, first and foremost, is network video infrastructure that will support a variety of protocols, particularly with the move toward HTML5 video. Rather than a using a proprietary distribution solution specific to a single streaming platform, you want one that supports multiple platforms.

Other principles of a CESI are resiliency, scalability, manageability, security and affordability.

Ultimately, when it comes to enterprise video, the network should not be the issue. You should choose the streaming application for the use cases you want to support. And with common enterprise streaming infrastructure, the delivery solution at the network layer will be able to support any and all platforms you choose.

For more information about CESI, check out our white paper Five Considerations for Deploying an Enterprise Content Delivery Network (eCDN).

From the IBM webinar Optimizing Video on Corporate Networks

The post Optimizing Video Behind The Corporate Firewall appeared first on Ramp .

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Enterprise Video Streaming on Diverse Networks

CMMA Blog



How do you deal with the diverse networks you encounter in the enterprise when you’re architecting a delivery strategy?

The first step is you need to understand the existing landscape in tbe enterprise, a sort of audit, if you will, of what’s there and where you want to get to in terms of the video delivery. For instance, do you have existing infrastructure you want to leverage? We have some customers that have been multicasting since the Windows Media days, and they want to continue to leverage those investments. That’s where Ramp and the HTML5 multicasting shine. So that’s the first big piece, understanding where you are today and where you want to go.

Next is the organizational structure of the network group, the IT department, if you will. Some of those departments are very strong on desktop management and so very comfortable deploying agents that might help with multicasting or peer-to-peer delivery. IT departments in other companies may be far more comfortable with server management and would prefer to manage servers that do edge caching, things like that. So, the culture of your company is important.

And then when it comes to solutions and where you want to get to, you really need to build in flexibility—support for a wide variety of video formats, the ability to distribute video to a wide variety of locations, and the flexibility to fail over, even between formats, as a part of your video strategy. Your strategy needs to be able to scale. You might open a new office or do an acquisition, and you need to have flexibility both horizontally across the network as well as vertically within each location.

It’s not uncommon to have a lot of diversity within a corporate network. Most enterprises use a combination of different types of delivery mechanisms that work together as a common streaming infrastructure . For example, you can have multicast for those people who are on a multicast-enabled part of the network. Then you can have an intelligent caching solution for those individuals that are not on multicast or for viewing devices on which you need to avoid installing software. Or maybe you have some viewers on a Citrix environment using thin clients. You are most flexible when your strategy supports diversity—viewing devices, delivery protocols, access locations, and streaming platforms—both today and in the future.

From the Streaming Media webinar Content Delivery Challenges in a New Era.

The post Enterprise Video Streaming on Diverse Networks appeared first on Ramp .

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Why It’s Important To Have a Device-Agnostic Video Content Strategy

CMMA Blog

Why is it important to have a device-agnostic content strategy, particularly for streaming in the enterprise?

The more enterprise communicators use and rely on video, the bigger and more diverse their audiences are bound to become. Even with enterprise standards, variety in the viewing devices audiences use are inevitable. From different operating systems to different types of computing devices, including the plethora of mobile devices and laptops, even to thin clients such as those from Citrix, the number of devices viewers want to use can quickly add up.

Having a content delivery strategy that is agnostic to the type of device—one that is neutral to those types of devices—not only simplifies support, but also allows viewers to receive the message regardless of the environment they happen to be in. They can move from one environment to another and the device they use doesn’t necessarily have to be tied to the environment they are in. The device can go from office to office, to VPN access and home access, et cetera, and still be able to access the video stream—whether it be a live broadcast or video on demand such as training and compliance videos.

From the Streaming Media webinar Content Delivery Challenges in a New Era.

The post Why It’s Important To Have a Device-Agnostic Video Content Strategy appeared first on Ramp .

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How do you put the “human” back in your marketing?

Artificial Intelligence

This post was originally published on the Ignite Blog on B2Bmarketing.net B2B Marketing will host their annual Ignite Conference on July 10, 2018. 

You know those movies about robots taking over the world? Ok, that hasn’t happened…yet. But our marketing is becoming increasingly robotic and impersonal. Today, we rely on marketing automation, search algorithms, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and any other number of digital technologies to scale our programs, reach more people, and be more targeted with our content. And all of that is good, but then what?

There is still a human being at the other end of our marketing and we ultimately need to engage with them in a meaningful way. Today, engagement is measured in clicks, views, and tiny digital signals that might indicate a good potential target. But where is the moment of persuasion and connection? That takes engagement. Real. Human. Engagement.

The good news is that real engagement is becoming more possible every day. Landing pages are becoming more dynamic, websites are integrating cool new tools to interact with site visitors, and there are all kinds of virtual environments where prospects can interact with you and your brand. The key characteristics of true engagement-driven technologies are:

  • Interactivity
  • Multiple content options
  • Multi-media content options
  • Social integration
  • All actions taken by someone are captured and measured

In my world, webinars are the ultimate engagement tool. What other opportunity do you have to interact with your prospects for up to an hour at a time? And, if you’re thinking of a webinar as simply a talking Powerpoint presentation, then you haven’t seen a modern webinar. Today, webinars enable attendees to ask questions, respond to polls and surveys, tweet, connect socially, chat with other attendees, download content, link to landing pages, link to key conversion offers like demos and free trials, and even self-select a sales consultation. They are also multi-media experiences that more resemble daytime talk shows then online presentations.

The real magic of these engagement-driven webinars, however, is how they capture every action that an audience member takes to help us find our best leads and learn from their behavior. By integrating this data into marketing automation and CRM systems, we can put this powerful information in the hands of salespeople. So instead of following up on a webinar, they are following up on a question asked or a piece of content downloaded; essentially continuing a conversation, not starting one.

The explosion of digital marketing technologies and their marriage to automation and artificial intelligence is great. It will help us leave a trail of tiny breadcrumbs in the digital ether for us to discover potential prospects. However, it’s what happens next that is most important. Because ultimately, there needs to be a moment…a human moment. And that is how we will turn a digital signal into a customer.

If you would like to see examples of engagement-driven webinars, come check out my presentation at B2B Marketing Ignite. I promise it will be engaging.

The post How do you put the “human” back in your marketing? appeared first on ON24 .

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