Cloud vs. On-Premises Video Hosting Costs and Benefits

Cloud video hosting is cheaper to start: low upfront cost, pay-as-you-go pricing. But it can cost more at scale from bandwidth and storage fees. On-premises hosting requires higher capital investment upfront but lower ongoing costs, making it the better fit for regulated industries like law enforcement, healthcare, and financial services that need full data control.

VIDIZMO EnterpriseTube, a Gartner-recognized secure YouTube-like enterprise video platform, offers you both on-premise video streaming as well as cloud video hosting.

You can create multiple video portals for external or internal use cases to stream video from your premise, OR AWS, Azure, or any other cloud of your choice.

The question is: is it more feasible to opt for deployment on an on-premise video streaming server or go for a cloud deployment? In this blog, we will explore just that. Read ahead to learn about:

• What does on-premise video streaming entail?
• What is cloud video hosting?
• How does it defers from cloud video hosting?
• How do the two defer in terms of benefits, capabilities, and cost?

What is Cloud Video Hosting?

Cloud video hosting entails the storage of your organization’s video content on cloud video hosting servers (also called “cloud datacenters”). The cloud video hosting servers utilize various cloud computing resources to optimize your videos for streaming and management.

Rather than setting this entire workflow yourself, a much easier and cost-effective method is to opt for a ready-made cloud video streaming solution, like VIDIZMO, that does it all for you.

With enterprise video gaining momentum across industries, businesses turn to the cloud to optimize the cost burden associated with mounting needs for video hosting, including its storage, processing, management, security, accessibility, innovation, and more.

Read More: How To Choose The Right Cloud Deployment Model For Your Organization?

Benefits of Cloud Server Video Hosting

Video cloud has helped companies flexibly scale up their video streaming infrastructure in the face of the rising use of videos.

Following are the ways in which storing video on the cloud and streaming on a cloud video platform like VIDIZMO benefits your business to grow in this tech-driven era:

Scalability and Flexibility

Cloud solutions are infinitely scalable which gives organizations the ability and flexibility to scale their video hosting and digital media capabilities and operations as the need arises, and innovate without worrying about the physical expansion of the video hosting infrastructure or resources. 

This allows you to easily add more users, benefit from better features, and integrate with your new IT systems. This is particularly useful for businesses conducting large-scale live streams with random surges in audience size.

Enterprise-Grade Security

Major cloud service providers like Azure, AWS, and Google (to name a few) have employed the highest level of technological security and compliance policies in their cloud ecosystem, which provides a highly fortified environment for all cloud video hosting.

Source: Salesforce - Benefits of Cloud Computing

Broad Range of Compliance Coverage

While using a cloud video hosting platform like VIDIZMO you will benefit from compliance coverage on storage and application level. You can store and host your videos in the data center and region of your choice based on regulatory requirements.

Plus, within the application, you can meet a variety of compliance requirements through various features like audit logs for GDPR and automatically generated & manually refined subtitles for Section 508.

Cost-efficient

Opting for a video cloud provider allows you to benefit from the economies of scale due to their massive infrastructure. Plus, the pricing is also lowered due to the rising competition between these cloud storage providers.

Centralization

Cloud offers centralized access to all video hosting infrastructure, which is best suited for companies operating multiple offices in different geographical locations with a geographically dispersed employee base. 

Artificial Intelligence

Centralized video data is also easier to analyze accurately. Utilize various cloud AI services like Azure Video Analyzer and Amazon Transcribe to generate and index a variety of video insights.

Video Archival for Lowered Storage Cost

Leading cloud providers like Azure Blob cloud storage or Amazon S3 cloud storage have a tiered storage structure with "Hot" storage having lower cost for video access and "Cold" or "Archival" storage allowing you to store away less frequently accessed videos having lower storage cost.

Maintenance

A major benefit of utilizing a cloud provider is that you will not have to worry about the maintenance of your streaming infrastructure.

Backups

Not only do cloud storage providers have scalable, secure, and encrypted storage but they also ensure high availability and disaster recovery of your business-critical data - this includes all videos you have stored on the cloud servers. Redundant backup storage can even be maintained in the region of your choice.

Remote Access

With cloud video hosting, employees in an organization are free to access videos and digital media content anytime, anywhere, which allows them the flexibility to work on the go while traveling or remotely work at home. This especially came in handy during the current pandemic.

Accessibility

Cloud video hosting makes all digital media accessible on any device, may it be laptops, smartphones, or tablets, giving employees the convenience to use whichever device they prefer. Cloud video hosting also encourages organizations to promote a ‘bring your own device’ culture further saving costs.

Taking a deeper dive into the cloud’s intangible video hosting capabilities reveals cloud has become essential to most 21^st century video-driven work cultures.

With organizations becoming increasingly globalized, the need for greater accessibility, mobility and scalability in a secure environment has expanded into all areas of business – all of which is further facilitated by cloud-enabled video hosting.

With cloud server video hosting seeming to offer such scalability and innovation, why even consider the on-premise deployment option? However, on-premise video streaming has its own particular use cases that it serves.

Let us explore what exactly is on-premise video streaming and what benefits can it entail for your organization:

The Risks That Keep You Up at Night

While the financial costs of the cloud can be significant, organizations aren't fully prepared for numerous non-financial risks. These risks can have far-reaching consequences, impacting everything from data security to operational continuity.

And while your cloud vendor might assure you that everything's under control, can you really afford to take that at face value? While cloud vendors may assure organizations that their data and infrastructure are secure, it is essential to conduct due diligence and evaluate the risks associated with cloud adoption. It is important to remember that while cloud service providers are responsible for the security of their infrastructure, organizations retain ultimate responsibility for protecting their data.

Vendor Lock-in

One of the biggest financial traps in cloud computing is vendor lock-in. Once you're deeply embedded in a specific cloud provider's ecosystem, switching to a new provider or bringing operations back in-house can be daunting, time-consuming, and expensive.

That's a lot of power for a vendor to hold over your organization, especially as their pricing models change. Organizations should consider adopting a vendor-neutral approach to mitigate the risks of vendor lock-in and ensure long-term success.

Data Sovereignty and Compliance

The global landscape for data privacy and protection is rapidly evolving, with new regulations emerging to address the growing concerns around data security and misuse. The laws around data storage and privacy are tightening. GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA. These regulations demand that enterprises know exactly where their data is stored, who has access to it, and how it's being handled. When your data resides in the cloud, these questions become significantly more complex to answer.

Sure, your cloud vendor has compliance certifications, but can they guarantee that your data won't be moved across borders to jurisdictions with weaker privacy protections? If you're dealing with highly sensitive information, that's a serious concern.

Security Threats

Security is another area where the cloud's shine starts to fade. While cloud providers invest heavily in security, the truth is, they're also a prime target for cybercriminals. One breach in a multi-tenant environment could expose your data to risks beyond your control.

Moreover, as the sophistication of cyber threats grows, maintaining complete control over your data security is crucial for mitigating risk.

Performance Bottlenecks

Despite promises of speed and scalability, enterprises frequently encounter performance issues in the cloud. Latency, downtime, and network slowdowns can severely impact business operations. And when you rely on a third-party provider, troubleshooting and resolving these issues can feel like navigating a labyrinth.

Can your business afford the risk of downtime or poor performance at critical moments?

What is On-Premise Video Streaming?

On-premise video streaming is storing, streaming and managing all your video content in your own streaming servers on-premise. You may even choose to stream your content in-house via your intranet for secure video delivery. This also helps in removing any bandwidth constraints. But that would require you to have a high-bandwidth network connection.

This is a viable option if you already have a physical data center (or have the budget to set up the extensive infrastructure) and have an IT team to manage the entire operation. Plus, even maintaining and updating the streaming system will be your personnel's responsibility.

Above all else, only go for it in case you are looking to have complete control over your video streaming infrastructure due to stringent security or compliance requirements.

What Are the Benefits of Cloud Video Hosting?

On-premise video streaming is best suited for enterprises operating in highly regulated industries or regions that require extensive security measures in place.

These may include:

• Government agencies
• Financial institutes
• Healthcare organizations

The stringent privacy needs force these enterprises to ensure higher control of business-critical operations. That does not mean that these businesses cannot benefit from video streaming. On-premise video streaming servers give them the appropriate security and control to make it all possible.

Moreover, on-premise video streaming is suitable for long-established enterprises with extensive on-premise IT infrastructure and data centers that can be cost-efficiently utilized to deploy our solution. You can also use your data center for faster video data migration over your company's intranet at a much lower cost.

VIDIZMO video streaming solution offers you flexible deployment models, on-premise being one of them.

County of Los Angeles Uses VIDIZMO On Their Premise to Keep Data Secure

You can set up our streaming server on your local virtual machines. Setting up and utilizing on-premise video streaming servers through VIDIZMO has several benefits that fulfill the above-mentioned organizational use cases:

• Air-tight Security: Securely stream your videos by hosting videos behind the company firewall and put in place stringent access control to ensure only authorized individuals have access to your content.
• Maintain Control: Have the solution be entirely deployed and managed by your in-house IT team.
• Fulfill Compliances: Ensure and maintain implementation of any government or industry-regulated compliances to avoid any non-conformity.
• Reduced Data Migration Expenses: Host your videos on your on-premise datacenters to assist with a faster migration process that has reduced expenditure. 

Learn More About All Features Offered in EnterpriseTube That You Can Install on Your Premise

Contact us to get a demo of our video platform and our team will also be happy to assist you in setting up our application on your premises. 

Hybrid Cloud as a Strategic Middle Ground

The hybrid cloud model allows you to keep some of your workloads on-premise while leveraging the cloud for others. This gives you the best of both worlds: control where you need it and flexibility when it makes sense.

By keeping sensitive data in-house, you can ensure compliance with regulations and mitigate security risks. At the same time, non-critical functions can still benefit from the cloud's elasticity.

On-premise Infrastructure for Mission-critical Operations

Many enterprises are bringing certain operations back on-premise by making the cloud exit. For industries like finance, healthcare, and government, where compliance and data security are paramount, having complete control over your infrastructure is no longer a luxury. It's a necessity.

By investing in modern on-premise solutions, companies can regain control, ensure high availability, and improve performance for mission-critical applications without sacrificing security or compliance.

Multi-cloud Strategy to Avoid Vendor Lock-In

Instead of putting all your eggs in one basket, consider adopting a multi-cloud approach. This strategy allows you to distribute workloads across multiple cloud providers, reducing the risk of vendor lock-in and offering more flexibility when it comes to pricing, performance, and geographic diversity.

A multi-cloud approach also ensures that you aren't reliant on a single provider's infrastructure, making it easier to avoid bottlenecks and ensuring better uptime.

Transitioning Away from the Cloud: What to Expect

If you're considering moving workloads back on-premise or adopting a hybrid or multi-cloud strategy, it's important to understand that it won't be an overnight process. But with the right strategy and partners, it's entirely achievable, and potentially more cost-effective in the long run.

Assess Your Current Cloud Usage

Start by conducting an audit of your current cloud usage. Which workloads are essential to your operations, and which are unnecessarily costing you money? Identify areas where performance, security, or compliance are suffering.

Partner with Experts

Moving away from the cloud (or partially transitioning) can be complex. Engaging with experts who understand hybrid and on-premise architectures can ensure a smooth transition and that your organization avoids pitfalls.

Long-term ROI

While making the cloud exit may have some upfront costs, the long-term ROI can be significant. Not only can you regain control over critical aspects of your business, but you can also optimize costs and ensure better regulatory compliance.

Is Cloud or On-Premise Video Hosting Cheaper?

Here is a detailed breakdown of tangible video hosting costs involved in an on-premises infrastructure compared to the video cloud deployment model:

For more information regarding VIDIZMO's cloud vs. on-premises video hosting costs and benefits, please contact us to get a free demo or sign up for a free trial.