Media Hosting

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The Challenge

Distributing media files across the web can be an unpredictable and expensive challenge. Making compelling content available on the Internet can lead to unanticipated spikes in demand and headaches as you try to manage bandwidth, storage, security, and the server infrastructure to serve client requests. Costs can rapidly escalate beyond your initial estimates and budget. When you are looking to provide media across the Internet, consider the following questions:

• How can I deliver content to my customers worldwide with exceptional performance?
• How much hardware, software, and network infrastructure will I need to provision and manage? What additional staffing requirements will I need?
• What are the costs of storage and delivery of my content throughout its lifetime?
• How will I cope with traffic spikes from unexpectedly popular content?
• How can I backup my data? Will I have system or geographic redundancy?
• What development impact will my media hosting solution have?

Media Hosting Using AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provide core products that you can use to solve the challenges of media hosting: Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon CloudFront, and the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). You can mix and match these services to meet your requirements, knowing that they work seamlessly together for internet-scale workloads.

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). Using Amazon S3, you are provided with massive amounts of storage capacity with the security and reliability of Amazon’s infrastructure built-in. Instead of having to provision and maintain file servers, you can simply use Amazon S3 and take advantage of Amazon’s world class data-center management. You can store an unlimited number of media objects, paying only for resources as they are used, without having to worry about acquiring and maintaining a server infrastructure. Amazon S3 also provides data storage in the US and Europe so that your information can be even closer to your end users. Learn more

Amazon CloudFront. For added performance in distributing your content, Amazon CloudFront offers a content delivery network with 14 edge locations around the world. This reduces the latency for your users – increasing performance and responsiveness by placing your content in edge locations closest to your users. And, like the rest of AWS, Amazon CloudFront requires no up-front contracts or commitments, and you pay only for the content you actually distribute. Learn more

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). With Amazon EC2, you can build scalable, reliable applications that efficiently process and deliver your media files. Amazon EC2 gives you massive compute power to help you tackle even the most challenging media hosting tasks faster and more cost-effectively than with alternative or on-premise solutions. Amazon EC2 also provides you with the flexibility to choose the operating systems, application platforms, and media transcoding/processing software your business demands. Learn more

Benefits at a Glance

Easy to use. AWS is designed to remove many of the barriers typically related to storing and distributing media. We take care of the procurement and infrastructure management, allowing you to focus on your content and application. It’s easy to get started with AWS, you can use the AWS Management Console or well-documented web services APIs to access AWS’s cloud computing platform.

Flexible. AWS enables you to select the operating system, programming language, web application platform, software, and other services you need. This eases the migration process for existing applications while preserving options for building new solutions.

Cost-Effective. You pay only for the compute power, storage, and other resources you use, with no long-term contracts or up-front commitments. For more information on comparing the costs of other hosting alternatives with AWS, see the AWS Economics Center.

Reliable. With AWS, you take advantage of scalable, reliable, and secure global computing infrastructure, the virtual backbone of Amazon.com’s multi-billion dollar retail business that has been honed for over a decade.

Scalable and high-performance. Amazon’s massive compute capacity and storage enables you to scale your application as your business grows.

Secure. AWS utilizes an end-to-end approach to secure and harden our infrastructure, including physical, operational, and software measures. For more information, see the AWS Security Center.

Media Hosting Resources