Free Enterprise

Moving Beyond the Enterprise Firewall
When looking at how to expand an enterprisestreaming solution beyond the corporate firewall,consider two options: a VPN-based solution for remoteemployees or an external CDN or service provider.

Some enterprise streaming solutions work very wellwith a VPN, assuming the content is encoded at a lowenough bitrate. Merck and CA both mentioned thatthey send audio-slide synchronization content acrosstheir VPNs. But recent advances may allow for full videoexperiences that are equivalent to LAN-based viewing.

Other enterprises opt to use a CDN or online videoplatform provider to handle external customer viewingof content that is also being shown within the firewall.Lockheed, for instance, uses an external hostingsolution provided by its enterprise streaming vendor.But it is also considering the use of a CDN if there is anincrease in web-only viewership from remoteemployees. Merck has used an external CDN forcustomer-focused events at off-site locations.

One emerging approach is to integrate VPN accesswith CDN delivery. Akamai’s Secure Streaming is oneexample of a CDN that allows VPN or mobile users toaccess live and on-demand streaming or static contentvia the corporate authentication solution. Using LDAPor Active Directory (previously mentioned) as part ofthis solution also means that stream viewing can beauthenticated and tracked for viewing compliance,while static content—such as slide images, documentsor transcripts—can be delivered securely alongsidethe stream.

The last emerging alternative is the fully onlineservice provider.

While many users may be familiar with WebEx and itsmany uses for collaborative computing, readers maynot be familiar with solutions that provide the ability tocreate rich media, synchronized content online. Thereare several online-only options within the online videoplatform (OVP) space that synchronize slides andstreaming media. Some are on-demand only, such asBrainshark; a few do on-demand and live streaming,such as Datpresenter. All, however, share a commonapproach to synchronization—PowerPoint files andtiming information can be uploaded together so theslides match the on-demand or live streams.

Conclusion
The world of enterprise streaming has beenconsistent and stable for the last several years, andWindows Media has been the de facto choice of themajority of enterprise solutions. The growth of newbrowser-based interactive players, including Flash andSilverlight, coupled with the growing importance ofmetadata and the rise of new online video platforms,means that enterprise streaming is at a watershedmoment. As budgets readjust to the economic situationand streaming finds a more central role in theorganization, 2010 should prove to be a growth year forboth vendors and corporate streaming practitioners.