Case Study: Dow Finds the Right Streaming Chemistry

In hopes of resolving these issues, Dow turned its sights on streaming, a technology that it believed would address its basic requirements while allowing it to leverage its existing infrastructure. There were five key objectives of this project:

- Reach and communicate with employees in 250-plus Dow locations around the world
- Distribute information quickly, often in a matter of hours, to a global audience
- Make information available to employees conveniently (at their desks and during local business hours) and easily
- Limit information access to individuals authorized to view that content
- Encourage the creation and distribution of rich media content

Choosing the Right Vendor/Solution
Once it understood its needs, Dow faced the challenge of finding a streaming solution that was easy to deploy and manage and that could be deployed cost-effectively throughout its global environment. Additional considerations included finding a vendor with solid experience supporting an organization as large and distributed as Dow and ensuring that Dow’s production IP network (local area network/LAN and wide area network/WAN) was not infringed.

After several years of planning and research, Dow selected Starbak and its Integrated Network Video (INV) platform. The reasons behind Dow’s choice of Starbak included the following:

- A focus on leveraging yet protecting Dow’s production IP network via support for multicast networks and the use of integrated caching appliances
- The availability of powerful centralized management platform enabling the creation, management, and protection of valuable rich media content
- The ability to integrate with existing systems in the environment (e.g., satellite distribution networks, active directory/LDAP)
- The use of standard media formats (e.g., Windows Media) that are viewable using tools already deployed throughout the environment
- A high degree of automation, which reduces the resources needed to manage and support the streaming environment
- The end-to-end coverage of the offering (supports/enables content creation, management, and distribution)
- Starbak’s experience supporting the global streaming requirements of other large multinational organizations