Elemental Technologies has stolen the headlines from Comcast’s X1 TV streaming app and cloud DVR service, which is now accessible both in and outside the home for delivery of live as well as on demand video.
But the wider interest is that it seems to confirm Comcast’s intent to extend its private cloud across all its US markets rather than go with Amazon’s Web services public based cloud. That is not yet certain since Comcast has so far only committed to private cloud in parts of its US footprint where X1 is already available, including the Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. (including southern Delaware, and parts of Maryland and Virginia), San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, and Atlanta greater metropolitan areas. The private cloud comprises a combination of Elemental’s live encoding software and Cisco’s UCS (Unified Computing System) using blade servers based on Intel’s commodity Xeon processors.
It looks as if it was Elemental rather than Cisco that sealed the deal and cemented Comcast’s allegiance with private cloud. It builds on Elemental’s existing relationship with Comcast as the supplier of a file based transcoding engine for its VoD services. That established the value of SDV (Software Defined Video) for making more efficient use of transmission and processing infrastructure, according to Jason Press, senior vice president of software engineering and operations for Comcast.
“Software-defined video processing solutions from Elemental have served us very well for On Demand applications,” said Press. “Elemental’s use of Linux OS, REST-based APIs, and its integration with Cisco UCS hardware, has improved our ability to quickly deploy our X1 DVR cloud-based services sourced from live channel line-ups.”
The word cloud in this context began as a definition for shared utility-like services, but has split into public and private varieties as well as hybrids. A private cloud can only really exist in a large enterprise like Comcast where there is the scope to build an infrastructure that can be shared between a variety of services and departments to enable elasticity in provision and scale economies. Comcast started off with Amazon, but has become convinced that a private cloud can be geared more effectively to its requirements and deliver the same advantages in scale while actually costing less, through being managed in-house.
The foundation is the X1 Entertainment Operating System, a cloud platform designed to deliver personalized entertainment to multiscreen devices, incorporating navigation, search and discovery. Comcast kicked off in 2014 by adding the cloud technology to its X1 DVR, so that customers could record TV content in the cloud to watch either in the home or while travelling. While in the home, this allows customers to turn every device into a TV, providing access to the program guide and most of the channel line-up, as well as the entire Xfinity On Demand library.
As X1 rolls out Comcast is continuing to build its private cloud infrastructure comprising data centers across the US spanning its major regions. This distributed approach is designed to ensure latency is kept to a minimum for live streaming delivery and is another reason Comcast has opted for a private cloud approach enabling close control over distribution and caching. These data centers are not just for video but all Comcast services including those for the enterprise, being deployed in a programme launched in November 2014. The same off the shelf servers can be used for enterprise applications as well as for Elemental’s encoding software, all integrated via Cisco’s UCS.
The Comcast deal is important for both Cisco and Elemental in boosting recognition for their respective cloud approaches, although from different perspectives. Cisco’s UCS has done well against rivals with longer traditions in enterprise IT such as IBM and HP and is well represented in most vertical segments, but has few good reference customers in media or broadcasting. Its one major scalp is Spanish broadcaster and media group Mediapro, the country’s largest content producer and rights holder.
Mediapro sells directly to end users and also to service providers for integration of linear, time shifted and VoD into their offerings. It was already a Cisco customer for Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology within its broadband network to which Mediapro has been migrating existing satellite services. Mediapro considered outsourcing content delivery to an external cloud provider, but then decided to adopt Cisco’s approach to distributed data centers based on virtualization, a unified network infrastructure around MPLS and the UCS cloud platform. Mediapro does not use encoders from Elemental, but several other vendors including EVS and Ateme.
Elemental does claim to have other private cloud customers, but has so far been unable to name them, making the Comcast deal all the more important as a reference site. Among contenders for Elemental’s private cloud approach is Sky, which now has a stake in its technology after making a $4m equity investment in December 2014. This was part of a $14.5 million Series D round of funding led by Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications and information services company, with participation also from existing Elemental investors. Sky’s interest stemmed from its decision to adopt Elemental for its three UK dedicated OTT services – Sky Go for existing satellite subscribers, pure play offering Now TV and Sky Store for renting or purchasing movies.
We know that cloud is now pivotal to Sky’s strategy for OTT and TV Everywhere as well as for 4K deployment, with its first box for this due to launch imminently. The forthcoming 4K box will be capable of streaming to smartphones and tablets via the cloud, with the launch brought forward to forestall rivals BT and Virgin Media.
Sky is also, like Mediapro, a Cisco customer for its core IP network and says it is now virtualizing this infrastructure via Cisco’s SDN and NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) technology. This process is using the Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS), designed specifically to facilitate transition to SDN and NFV by integrating existing network components including conventional routers and optical switches. It is also designed to integrate with the Cisco UCS, so it does look as if Sky is on a similar path to Comcast.
Telstra also has close relationships with both Elemental, through its stake, and Cisco. Telstra and Cisco have signed what they call a “cross-functional engagement” involving development of new services based on an underlying IT platform. Telstra and Cisco then made a joint announcement at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that the network has now finally caught up with the data centers in terms of virtualization and provisioning flexibility, setting the stage for private cloud.