Videos in the Cloud, that's not possible in the business environment? In this article we will tell you 5 reasons that will convince you to share your large video files in the future, especially in the B2B-environment, instead of sending or transferring them from A to B. If you already share your video files, you can read about the advantages of sharing videos here! 

I used to work for a TV station and today I produce large national and international show and sports events with my production company. We also provide a lot of video content such as the broadcast recording, video news release (VNR), magazine shows, a highlight show, the aftermovie, various slow-motion playouts and many more for the customers of our customers available in the cloud.

Until 2010, we mostly played this content out via satellite at the event on location - this was extremely complex and costly. Later, we made the offers available via FTP server. Here we often had problems with performance and also technical problems. We always had to take care of hardware.

In the meantime, the circle of customers has changed a lot - it has grown extremely: In addition to the classic news agencies, which today also operate a video service, there are not only the large television stations with their enormous technical structures. There are also many media houses, newspaper publishers, radio stations and others like social media platforms, which also require moving images and offer them on their B2C platforms. And since these are mostly special interest platforms, their reach in the respective target group makes them enormously attractive for "content owners".

In addition, all those involved in the production workflows: camera teams, post production, sound studio etc.

With so many participants, FTP servers quickly reach their limits despite a proper Internet connection. Cloud providers such as Dropbox, iCloud or OneDrive, but also WeTransfer were never an alternative for us: there were too many limitations: e.g. the limited size of the files and the transfer speeds for uploads and downloads. In addition such details, that once interrupted uploads had to be restarted from the beginning in case of an interruption.

That's why we have built our own platform, which is optimized for working with videos in TV resolution and the resulting large file size and the special requirements of video files.

Info: Video files cannot be zipped. A video codec is already a compression of the data volume. A further reduction is always accompanied by a loss of quality. This may not be bad for playouts on smartphones and web players. If the content is used for further processing, for playouts on large displays and screens or for example on TV, it no longer fulfill the quality requirements. By the way, this has nothing to do with High Definition (HD) and also not with 4K.

In the past, working with these videos was extremely complex and tedious. It was shot on tape, later on disks or USB sticks. After the video editing you left the editing suite again with tape material. These were always physical media. Today, this is no longer necessary in the professional film, documentary, news and sports sector.

5 good reasons why video is better provide via cloud

Provide video files via cloud - reason 1: keyword time

• When content is stored in the cloud, there is no need for recurring time-consuming uploads

• There is only one central storage location that can be accessed from anywhere

• The content is always available in best quality worldwide 24/7 IMMEDIATELY

• Ideally, archive material should also be kept available online. No archivist can look into the future, he has no knowledge of which request will come tomorrow...

• With cloud platforms with intelligent rights management, I no longer have to worry about notifying recipients about the provision of content (e.g. by phone call, email or SMS). The platform automatically sends emails to the access rights owners of the respective folder - an "out-of-the-box" automation

• Some platforms provide enormous computing capacity and bandwidth for downloads

Provide video files via cloud - reason 2: keyword cost saving

• The costs adapt to the needs: The cloud often offers pay-per-use models

• The elimination of working time for recurring uploads not only saves time but also costs

• The costs for own servers and the associated expenses for acquisition, operation (room, electricity, air conditioning) and also maintenance and above all software updates are no longer necessary and are priced in by most cloud providers

• With Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS") offers, you can get started right away - development time, programming and implementation are also eliminated

• The elimination of searching for the location of content saves costs

• Expenses for physical data carriers such as hard drives, USB sticks, etc. will be completely eliminated in the future

• Expenses for courier services are often hidden costs when it comes to providing moving images

Provide video files via cloud - reason 3: keyword flexibility

• If necessary, you can easily assign rights using your smartphone and even with a poor Internet connection (under the table at a business dinner in an emergency) - the content is available in the cloud, not locally

• Customers & partners can search and view the content themselves. This no longer has to be done in-house

• There are cloud platforms that require no hardware or software at all. Just get started

• There are platforms that are very easy to use - there is no need for training

• You can test under real conditions: most SaaS offerings offer completely free trial accounts

Provide video files via cloud - reason 4: keyword scaling

• The cloud separates performance from demand. Those who have little or no demand will still get the concentrated server performance and internet bandwidth when needed

• Video files can be huge - there are cloud providers without any restrictions and limitations in file size, server capacities and the tiresome bandwidth limitations

Provide video files via cloud - reason 5: keyword control

• With the provision via satellite, FTP server and also via transfer link, no feedback is received as to whether the recipient has received the content

• In the B2B area you also receive data about the usage and performance of the content of your customers and partners

Closing words

These were quite a few arguments for the provision of video files in the cloud. The entire archiving of video content in the cloud makes sense. All other workflows are always compromises when you look at the whole of the processes involved, the workflows and availabilities. Storage in the cloud makes these processes very efficient. There are countless providers. But when it comes to storing and delivering high resolution video in the B2B space, very few providers show the high efficiency of extremely fast uploads, extremely fast downloads, easy searches with preview videos created by the platform itself. With limitations on file sizes and bandwidths, many providers reach their limits very quickly.

Tip: You want to switch to the future now? In the following checklist you will find the most important decision criteria for a B2B video content platform in the cloud.