As AWS S3 uses object storage instead of block storage, it can transfer bundled data with unique identifiers and customizable metadata tags to form complete objects. Object storage infrastructure also has reduced latency when storage is remote. This leads to faster delivery or performance of the overall application, dependent on storage.

What is Amazon S3 Video Hosting?

Amazon S3 or AWS S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service offered by AWS or Amazon Web Services. It provides object storage through Amazon S3 REST API and web service interface. AWS S3 uses the scalable storage infrastructure used by large networks like Netflix and eCommerce giants like Amazon.

AWS S3 object storage can store any object like file storage for Internet applications, Videos, data backups, recovery, archives, data analytics, and even hybrid cloud storage. However, there are some limits to the uploaded object file size. An AWS S3 object can have a file size between 1 byte and 5TB. If an object exceeds 5TB, it must be divided into maximum chunks of 5TB before uploading. Also, during the upload, a maximum stream of 5GB can be uploaded in a single upload operation. For uploading objects larger than 5GB, a user must use the S3 multipart upload API.

AWS S3 History and Infrastructure Design

Amazon Web Services started offering S3 services to businesses as web services in the United States on March 14, 2006. It further spread to Europe in November 2007 and is now present in 190 countries worldwide. AWS started with 10 billion objects in October 2007 and grew by 10 times to 102 billion objects in March 2010. Amazon reported that it stores more than 100 trillion objects in S3 servers as of March 2021.

It proved to be a success as it provided small, medium, and large-scale businesses an opportunity to replace the upfront capital investment. Earlier, with limited options, they had to bear the large capital cost of setting up servers, and it was still cumbersome to maintain them in multiple locations. Now, users can create hundreds or thousands of S3 servers in minutes and deliver globally via Video CDN distribution.

Infrastructure Design

Objects are the basic storage units of AWS S3, and they are organized into containers called buckets. Each object is identified by a unique user-assigned key in relation to the bucket. Buckets and objects within them can be managed manually using the web interface through the console and programmatically with the Amazon S3 REST API, AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), or AWS SDK.

Every request for an object gets authorized using an access control list (ACL) associated with each object or bucket. Object and Bucket ACLs are independent, meaning that an object does not necessarily inherit the permissions from its bucket. Permission to other AWS account users can also be granted for object access. A bucket can also be configured to log HTTP information to a sibling bucket for data mining operations.

Can Amazon S3 handle HTML5 Video Streaming?

AWS S3 easily handles HTML5 video streaming through basic upload and HTML embed code. You can use any HTML5 open-source video player or browser’s default video playback capabilities with videos hosted on S3. Your HTML code looks like this,

<video controls preload=”auto”
poster=”http://mys3bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/videoImage.jpg”>
<source src=”http://mys3bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/myvideofile.mp4″ type=’video/mp4′ />
</video>

The poster attribute here defines a thumbnail image before the playback.

Customizations during playback or to the player are made via the player frontend, not via AWS. Customizations to the player can be made using a secure video player like that of VdoCipher or java scripts and styling elements for your open-source player.

In the later part, we will also discuss How you can configure an S3 bucket to host your videos. We will do this via uploading video to the bucket, applying global distribution through CloudFront CDN, security, and playback. Using Amazon S3 video hosting with AWS CloudFront to host videos for OTT, on-demand viewing is highly scalable and a faster delivery approach.

Live Video Streaming with AWS S3

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) offers the necessary scalability, data availability, security, and performance required for live video streaming workflows. This service can act as a low-cost origin for live streams, replacing AWS Elemental MediaStore for basic live video origination. Implementing a redundant architecture with AWS Elemental Live and MediaLive ensures a resilient streaming setup. Using a MediaLive standard channel, HLS outputs are generated and directed to two separate Amazon S3 bucket locations, ensuring redundancy. In case of an encoder failure, this setup allows for seamless failover by managing stale manifests and forcing 404 HTTP error codes to trigger redundancy failover as per HLS specifications.

For optimal performance, use adaptive bitrate (ABR) media streaming, organizing media using slash (/) delimiters for each live channel format. Amazon S3 can handle high request rates, achieving up to 3,500 PUT/COPY/POST/DELETE or 5,500 GET/HEAD requests per second per partitioned prefix. Strong read-after-write consistency across all AWS regions ensures that subsequent read requests immediately receive the latest version of an object, maintaining smooth live streaming.

Security features include encryption and access management, with compliance to PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and other regulatory standards. Additionally, content security can be enhanced with access tokenization and Secure Media Delivery at the Edge, while full Digital Rights Management (DRM) can be achieved using DRM + AWS Infrastructure providers like VdoCipher.

Planning an AWS-based Video Infrastructure

The basic objective for planning an AWS S3 Video Streaming Infrastructure is to provide scalable, secure, and faster video delivery for authorized playback or download. AWS S3 provides a scalable infrastructure for video object storage, but further additions are required to enhance the delivery. These additional features include global distribution via AWS CloudFront CDN, transcoding, and encryption. To list down, here are the following necessary components needed to be set up.

• Setting up an S3 bucket
• Upload a video to the S3 bucket
• Transcoding to support Adaptive Bitrate Streaming
• Encrypting the Files before storage
• Create a CloudFront origin access identity and CloudFront distribution
• Configure your CloudFront distribution for your custom domain name
• Dynamic key exchange playback for Encrypted video chunks

All these components are required as basic features to handle different devices and across globe secure delivery. If adaptive bitrate streaming is not set up, it will lead to playback disruption for low-bandwidth network users. Similarly, CDN provides faster delivery across the globe. Finally, setting up a DRM layer of security will protect your videos from illegal downloads and screen capture. Also, setting up all these components requires your familiarity with coding. Using a secure video hosting solution provider with AWS infrastructure is better if that is your weak or capital-intensive area.

S3 bucket creation and upload process for streaming video

Obviously, there are different methods using the web interface through the console and programmatically with the Amazon S3 REST API, AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), or AWS SDK. For simplicity, we will be discussing the steps via AWS Management Console.

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console & select the Amazon S3 console by searching S3.
2. In the left navigation pane, choose Buckets.
3. Click on Create bucket.
4. Enter a bucket name in the next create bucket page.
5. Choose a preferred region. Keep it closest to your application server, but if only for playback, then closest to the majority audience. When having global viewership, implement CDN.
6. For Unrestricted Public Access, Disable the “Block all public access,” which is by default. The default setting of “Block all public access” is good if you use Cloudfront CDN with S3. This setting doesn’t block viewers from accessing via Cloudfront CDN.
7. You can keep other settings as default and click on Create bucket. This will create your bucket and will be ready to host your videos.
8. In the Objects tab of your new bucket, choose Upload.
9. On the Upload page, choose Add files under Files and folders.
10. Choose a video file to upload from your local system and then choose Open.

Finally, Choose Upload, and the console will start showing a progress bar to display the uploading.

Note: If you’re uploading large video files to S3, file size restriction can disrupt your upload. For such use cases, use Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration or batch processing. Transfer Acceleration can upload a video over long distances at a faster rate.

Why Avoid Using S3 Buckets alone for Serving Video?

Using Amazon S3 alone for serving video can present several challenges, particularly concerning cost and performance. S3 is designed for storage, not for high-performance media delivery. High traffic can overwhelm S3, as it has a limit of 5000 GET requests per second per partition. This can be problematic for high-demand video services. Additionally, egress data costs from S3 can be high.

For a better experience, using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) like Amazon CloudFront is recommended. CloudFront caches content at edge locations, reducing load times and bandwidth costs. It also supports high request rates better than S3 alone. By integrating CloudFront with S3, you get the benefits of distributed content delivery, optimized performance, and reduced costs. For small videos (like 50MB), this setup can significantly enhance delivery speed and reliability.

To implement this, upload your videos to an S3 bucket and configure CloudFront to use this bucket as the origin. Ensure proper cache control headers for efficient caching. While S3 handles storage, CloudFront manages delivery, providing a seamless and efficient video streaming experience.

Create AWS CloudFront Distribution for CDN support

For optimal video streaming, integrating Amazon S3 with a CDN such as CloudFront is advisable. CloudFront improves performance by caching video content at edge locations closer to users, reducing latency and load times. This setup leverages S3 for storage while utilizing CloudFront’s caching capabilities for delivery, mitigating the limitations of S3 alone. CloudFront also offers cost benefits, with cheaper egress rates compared to direct S3 delivery.

Creating an AWS CloudFront distribution is fairly simple, but it may require additional steps like securing your S3 access by providing access to a special CloudFront user only. We have listed the basic steps of creating a CDN distribution and accessing S3 videos via the distribution URL. Setting up a custom domain for your CloudFront distribution requires further steps and AWS Route 53 service usage.

1. Sign in to the Console and open the CloudFront console by searching for CloudFront and selecting it.
2. Choose Distributions in the left navigation pane.
3. Choose to Create distribution.
4. In the Origin section, choose the domain name of your S3 origin named after the bucket name you created in S3.
5. In the Default cache behavior, choose Redirect HTTP to HTTPS.
6. Keep the default values for other features unless explicitly required and click on Create distribution.

Now, AWS will create a subdomain for your CloudFront distribution, and the S3 video files can be accessed by suffixing the object name at the end of this subdomain. As soon as a request is made via distribution, it will start creating copies of the video file as per the price class of locations chosen.

Batch Transcoding for Adaptive bitrate streaming

Consumers of any small, medium, or large-scale video providers use devices of all sizes and shapes for video playback. Such a large list of screen sizes and network capacity poses a challenge to cater to them more effectively and enhance their user experience. That is why no single object can cater to all of them instead of a range of video objects. These objects are actually copies in different formats, sizes and bitrates. AWS provides a scalable feature to accomplish this task which is called transcoding. There are following major steps included in the process.

1. Upload input videos
2. Start processing the video file for different playback options
3. Storing the transcoded video files within folders under the S3 bucket
4. Delivering the output video files as per users compatibility

You need to set up S3 Batch Operations, invoke a Lambda function, and call MediaConvert to batch-transcode media objects in an S3 bucket. The outputs are finally moved into the S3 source bucket as separate objects, like,

• An HLS adaptive bitrate stream for multi-size and bandwidth playback
• A .mp4 video file
• Thumbnail images from regular intervals during playback

We will now highlight the categories of steps you need to take to set up batch transcoding for adaptive bitrate streaming. Please refer to the AWS documentation of the steps mentioned below for detailed singular steps.

1. Create an IAM role for MediaConvert, S3 Batch Operations, and Lambda function
2. Start a Lambda function for video transcoding
3. Configure Amazon S3 Inventory as a source bucket
4. Run an S3 Batch Operations job to process the output media files from and to the S3 bucket

Applying Encryption for security from illegal downloads

AWS itself provides a security mechanism under three server-side encryption mechanisms. They are mutually exclusive options and depend upon how you decide to manage the encryption keys.

1. Amazon S3-Managed Keys (SSE-S3)
2. KMS keys Stored in AWS Key Management Service (SSE-KMS)
3. Customer-Provided Keys (SSE-C)

But many tools can break these key management systems and require some strong protection technology like DRM. It becomes secure majorly due to two reasons, control over devices and browsers by license providers and secondly due to dynamic and updated key exchange system. Again, setting up DRM is fairly technical, and thus, we are listing the basic steps required on your side to be processed technically.

1. You must acquire a DRM license through providers like Google Widevine and Apple Fairplay. They let you use their system to generate and store your DRM content keys and authenticate the media request during storage and playback.
2. Set up an AWS server to batch-process the media files for encryption and store your encrypted video files in an S3 bucket.
3. You will also have to create a live application that authenticates and authorizes your playback users using the licensee dynamic key management system.

Finally, you will need an online media player capable of handling DRM-protected video file playback. This mechanism protects your videos from being illegally downloaded using any tools. On Android and Apple devices, it also protects screen capture, but obviously, it can be video recorded, and it is thus advised to enable a dynamic watermark.

How to playback AWS S3-hosted videos

Playback of AWS S3-hosted video files is fairly simple. You need an open-source video player that supports HTML5 playback. You also get additional features if you use any secure AWS hosting provider like VdoCipher with DRM protection. Otherwise, the playback on any HTML page is similar to what was explained for the HTML5 video earlier.

The video from AWS S3 will play automatically through the browser player configuration.
The code required is simple and can be integrated manually as an iframe or via plugins, API, etc.

<video controls>
<source src=”http://mys3bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/myvideofile.mp4″>
</video>

Challenges in setting up AWS S3 Video Streaming

Even for a DevOps engineer, all the setup tasks mentioned above are moderately cumbersome. Even if we ignore the bug fixes and exception handling, there is a lot to do from starting the upload to storage and final playback. Also, if you plan to integrate security into your video infrastructure, it requires getting licenses and their integrations. To summarize the challenges, let us list down four major stages required in setting up AWS S3 Video Streaming and their difficulty levels.

1. S3 bucket creation and upload – Easy
2. AWS CloudFront set up – Easy
3. Batch Transcoding for adaptive playback – Moderate
4. Applying DRM Encryption – Difficult

Small, medium and large-scale video streaming providers mainly use a solution provider with a history of providing the best in class service and features. They can help you evade the challenges in the implementation part and the challenges in creating dashboards, APIs, etc., for easy integration.

Secure Video hosting solution on AWS Infrastructure – VdoCipher

As a secure video hosting solution provider on AWS Infrastructure, the best one based on global reviews is likely VdoCipher. It not only provides AWS S3-hosted videos but provides a ton of other features, like,

Google and Apple FairPlay DRM Encryption – protect videos from unauthorized access and downloads via Widevine and FairPlay DRM.

Dynamic watermarking – to discourage screen capture, details like user ID, email, etc., can be dynamically watermarked over the video.

Secure offline downloads in apps – VdoCipher iOS native SDK securely enables video download on the device.

Google SafetyNet for app-based security – SafetyNet to block playback on duplicate apps.

Plugins – The video plugin by VdoCipher supports WordPress, Moodle, and other CMSs and LMSs.

Geo-Restrictions – For blacklisting or whitelisting specific countries

Smart HTML5 Video Player – dynamic controls with multi-lingual subtitle support, change playback speed, theme options, and API to add overlay buttons for tracking viewer interactions with video.

Adaptive Video Quality with CloudFront CDN – VdoCipher uses Global AWS Cloud Infrastructure. Storage on AWS S3, batch Transcoding via VdoCipher algorithms on AWS EC2, Streaming of content via Cloudfront CDN, and Encryption by integrating Google and Apple DRM. If you want to know more about, what is transcoding, you can visit the blog linked.

FAQs

Does AWS provide DRM protection for video streaming?

AWS has no DRM protection service of its own, which is why it needed to be integrated with Google Widevine and Apple Fairplay DRM for illegal download protection.

Can we load an AWS S3 hosted into an Iframe?

Yes, it requires just placing your video tags under iframe tags in HTML and has compatibility support in every browser.

Is AWS S3 storage expensive for video streaming?

AWS S3 storage is the most affordable storage if you are looking forward to scaling and adding additional features like adaptive bitrate streaming, CDN, and encryption. Also, due to AWS’s affordable pricing, DRM technology integration still makes it highly affordable.

Vishal Sharma

My expertise focuses on DRM encryption, CDN technologies, and streamlining marketing campaigns to drive engagement and growth. At VdoCipher, I’ve significantly enhanced digital experiences and contributed to in-depth technical discussions in the eLearning, Media, and Security sectors, showcasing a commitment to innovation and excellence in the digital landscape.

The post AWS S3 Video Streaming & Video Hosting with Amazon CDN and Multi-DRM appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

What is Online Video Storage

Online video storage is a virtual approach that allows users to store videos in a remote location. By remote location we mean the videos are stored on servers in off-site locations. These servers are maintained by their-party service providers who are then responsible for the hosting, management and securing the videos stored on their servers. The video data stored on these servers is accessible via public or private internet connection.

Online video storage helps organizations and individuals to store videos in an organized and safe manner, so that they don’t have to worry about the enormous video storage space and other operational costs. It’s scalable which means you can increase or reduce the storage usage as per need.

Online Video Storage System

Using remote servers, online video storage providers save data files like videos, images etc. Users upload their videos to servers via an internet connection, which is then saved on virtual machines on a physical server. The storage providers store these video files in various data centers across the world to ease availability and provide redundancy. In times of increase in the demand of storage space, the provider will spin up more virtual storage machines to handle the increasing load. To access the videos stored online, users need a internet connection and a browser, mobile app, web portal or application programming interface (API).

Types of video storage to store video online

Public Cloud Video Storage

Public clouds are large scale cloud storage services and not owned by any end user. Examples include Amazon Web Services, Google cloud and Microsoft Azure. Nowadays, many public online video storage solutions have even started offering their services on the client’s in-premises. These are mostly big corporate organizations and firms. The pricing structure is also variable and often they offer free services upon some limitations after which you have to opt for a paid model.

Private Cloud Video Storage

Private clouds store videos in a private server dedicated to a business or end user. The server can be configured, deployed and managed within the premises (Dedicated cloud) or built by a third-party cloud service provider (Managed Private Video Cloud). In this case, the data servers of the vendor are located off-premises but run behind the business firewall.

Hybrid Cloud Video Storage

In hybrid cloud video storage, the videos are stored in a combination of public and private environments. The common example includes environments like an on-premise data center and public cloud infrastructure like Google Cloud. This video storage model is gaining popularity as it combines using on-premise servers and at the same time, takes advantage of public cloud.

Multi Cloud Video Storage

This multi cloud approach involves more than one cloud vendor, be it public or private. All hybrid clouds fall under multi clouds but not all multi clouds are hybrid. In this storage, multiple clouds are integrated in some form. The included clouds can be all private, all public or a mix of both.

On-Premise Vs. Online Video Storage

Online video storage benefits for businesses

Collaboration – Hosting your video online gives the flexibility of access to the files remotely. Multiple authorized members of your team can simultaneously access, edit and improvise the video content. Any person with requisite permissions can work remotely on these files.

Online Backup – Another advantage of using an online video storage platform is the online backup of your video files. In case your system crashes or you accidentally delete some files, you can easily retrieve them from the online storage platform.

Scalability – Scalability means handling increased workload without disrupting your current working model. As your business or video demand increases, you may run short of storage space with your current paid or free plan. An online video storage solution like VdoCipher offers scalable plans where you can anytime upgrade to the higher storage and bandwidth plan in a hassle-free way.

Security – Security of your videos is a major concern while choosing a video hosting platform. Every year, at least $29.8 billion is lost because of video piracy and illegal downloads. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, streaming contributes to nearly 80% of the piracy and affects upto 2.6 million workers in the U.S. Coupled with legal options like copyright infringement, advanced technologies like DRM security as provided by VdoCipher secure your videos from illegal downloads and piracy.

Considerations while choosing a online video storage platform

Pricing – Most businesses consider this as the major factor in making a selection. The pricing varies depending on the service provider and offered features. From free trials to paid plans, there is a range depending on your videos and business requirements.

Security – To maximize security, it is best to opt for a video storage provider offering the highest level of security like video DRM. At no point you are ready to lose revenue and brand reputation because of illegal downloads or unauthorized access. Securing your videos with DRM is the utmost requirement for businesses like elearning and media companies and individual creators looking for video protection.

Storage Limits – Make a consideration of how much storage space you need. Opt for a smaller plan if you have few videos or in the initial requirements of video storage. As the number of videos increases, upgrade to a higher plan with ample storage limits. Hence, choose a video storage solution providing flexibility as you scale and pricing as per the video storage needs.

Video Analytics – Generally, all video hosting websites give basic analytics to monitor your content. The parameters include no of visitors, conversion rates, traffic source, bounce rate, average view time and other engagement metrics. This information helps you better understand the video performance and tailor the content based on demographics.

Ease to Use – Apart from all the required features, the basic UI and functionalities of the video storage platform must be easy to understand and use. The videos should be properly organized and easily accessible from anywhere on the dashboard. The platform must not lag and give a smooth user experience.

Best Way To Store Videos Long Term

Cloud Storage – This is by far the best way to store, access and distribute your videos in a few seconds. The files are stored on the internet using a video hosting provider and accessible via the public internet or a dedicated private network connection.

• Cloud storage and backup
• Remote update and file synchronization
• Files can be encrypted
• Unlimited scalability
• Cost-effective

Local Storage – Local storage includes a variety of physical hardwares to store videos. Examples are external hard drives, flash drives and even local computers. Easy accessibility is the main reason to opt for local storage. But this holds good only to store a few videos locally or when security of your videos is not a concern.

• Quick access to videos
• Complete control over your videos
• No remote backup
• Only locally accessible
• Not useful when working in team
• Limited storage space. As the need for storage increases, so does the cost and number of devices.

Network-Accessed Storage (NAS) – An NAS device is a storage device connected to the internet that allows storage and retrieval of data from a central location for authorized network users and varied clients. As long as the NAS is connected to WiFi, videos are accessible from anywhere in the world.

• Centralized storage
• Accessible by multiple users
• Scalable
• No video security
• High bandwidth usage to store large video files
• Maintenance cost

Best Online Video Storage and Sharing Sites and Apps

Google Drive

Google Drive is one of the most used cloud storage and syncing services. It offers a good amount of storage space, integration with Google Workspace and other collaboration functionalities.

Pros

• Easy access to video files saved on the cloud
• Easy access from multiple devices
• Excellent user interface
• Better video organization and management

Cons

• You can store videos only up to 5 TB if you have purchased at least that much storage
• The maximum playback resolution is 1920 x 1080
• Individual users can only upload 750 GB each day between My Drive and all shared drives
• Security concerns

iDrive

iDrive is a cloud storage software to backup, save and retrieve your video data. Available for PCs, Macs and Mobile devices, iDrive offers an affordable and easy solution to store videos.

Pros

• Unlimited devices per account
• Real-time sync and share feature
• Cross-platform backup process
• Affordable backup system

Cons

• Slow upload and download speeds
• Slow and hard to reach customer support reported
• No unlimited plans
• No proper security measure in place

Dropbox

Dropbox is a file hosting service offering personal cloud, cloud storage and file synchronization. Designed to easily collaborate on projects, it works on Mac, Linux, iOS, Windows and Android devices.

Pros

• Offline capabilities
• Offers Dropbox Files API, and Paper API
• Seamlessly integrates with Google Suite, Microsoft Office, Slack, Adobe, Zoom, Autodesk, Canva and AWS
• Fast upload speeds

Cons

• Offers less amount of free storage (2GB)
• Costly pricing
• Interface isn’t very intuitive

pCloud

pCloud offers easy-to-use cloud storage solutions for individuals, families and businesses. You can backup videos from your device or play your personal playlists.

Pros

• Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption
• Up to 10 GB free storage
• Easily store files from other online platforms
• Automatic file upload
• User-friendly interface

Cons

• EFH and pCloud crypto come with independent subscription
• No dedicated customer support system
• No client-side encryption in the free plan

Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft’s OneDrive offers free and paid online storage with availability from your Android device, computer (PC or Mac), and any other devices you use. With OneDrive for Business, you also get storage for your work files so you can share and collaborate on them with other people at your work.

Pros

• Close collaboration with Office
• Easy file sharing
• Files on Demand
• Secure access controls

Cons

• Synchronization limits
• Limited backup functionality
• 400 character limit on the size of file paths

Apple iCloud Drive

Apple’s online storage service, iCloud Drive is a place to keep all your files and access them from all your Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Pros

• File access across multiple devices.
• Ease integration into the whole Apple ecosystem
• Capable Windows client and web access
• Automatic sync and update across devices

Cons

• It gets harder to sync across multiple devices if you have multiple Apple IDs
• A little more pricey than the competition
• Web Interface is below par

VdoCipher – Secure Online Video Storage

VdoCipher, a secure video hosting provider with Hollywood Grade DRM Encryption protects your premium videos from video piracy and illegal downloads. Our highest level of security DRM Encryption offers Multi DRM protection to the videos, so you don’t have to worry about any unauthorized access or video sharing.

We offer multiple ways to embed videos (API, iFrame, and Script) on a website where you can monetize your video content. VdoCipher WordPress Plugin makes the whole video embedding process easy and fast and supports the most popular WordPress LMS. Apart from embedding video, there are other key security features to look for while choosing our services to secure and monetize your videos.

Features

• Google Widevine and Apple FairPlay DRM Encryption
• Dynamic Watermarking
• Domain Restrictions
• Secure offline downloads in apps
• Screen capture block in Android and iOS Native App
• Smart HTML5 Video Player with adaptive bitrate streaming, multi-lingual subtitle support, chapter segmentation via API, customizable controls, theme, and layout
• Global AWS Cloud Infrastructure
• Easy to use Dashboard to upload and edit videos, generate embed code and view the usage of bandwidth consumption
• WordPress and Moodle Plugin for quick integrations
• VdoCipher Android SDK to integrate Play Integrity to added video protection. Check out our play integrity api documentation to know more.

Online Video Storage Statistics

1. The global cloud video storage market size is expected to grow at 16.1% during 2021-2028, valued at USD 20.93 billion in 2028.
2. The growing demand for meeting platforms like Teams, Zoom has likely increased the demand for cloud video storage solutions owing to high storage demands.
3. In 2020, North America was the leading region in the global cloud services market.
4. In 2020, the global cloud storage market size was valued at $6.2 billion.
5. According to Flexera State of the Cloud Report 2021, nearly 82% of the large enterprises have already deployed hybrid cloud infrastructure.

FAQs

What is the best storage for large video files?

Cloud storage is the best way to store videos of any size. It is a secure, remote, and scalable storage solution and accessible from anywhere with an active internet connection. Additionally, there is always scope to upgrade to higher storage and bandwidth plans, making it an ideal storage solution for large video files.

How much storage does 4k video take?

A 4K video approximately takes 300-400 MB of storage per minute of footage.

How to roughly estimate bandwidth usage instead of using a video storage calculator?

For example, a 1 hour long video lecture has 400 MB size. If it is watched by one user, the bandwidth utilized is 1*400 – 400 MB. For 50 users, it will be 50*400 – 20 GB bandwidth. If 20 users, each watching 10 times, then the bandwidth used is 20*10*400 – 80 GB. Hence, bandwidth usage depends proportionally on the number of viewers and their viewing time.

Jyoti

Jyoti began her career as a software engineer in HCL with UNHCR as a client. She started evolving her technical and documentation writing skills to become a full-time Content Marketer at VdoCipher.

The post Best Online Video Storage Solutions for Video Creators appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

Organizations opting for cloud storage eliminate the need for investing in in-house storage infrastructures. Storing videos on the cloud provides the flexibility of scaling the storage capacity when the data volume changes. Organizations pay exactly for the capacity they use as a service, and there are no worries of any unanticipated increase in the data volume.

What is Video Cloud Storage Service

Cloud video storage is an extension of highly virtualized cloud computing infrastructure in terms of interfaces, near-instant elasticity and scalability, multi-tenancy, and metered resources. Video cloud storage services allow storing data and video files on a remote storage system. Securely stored, the data gets managed, backed up, and made accessible via public internet or dedicated private network connection. The cloud storage provider manages the servers and other storage infrastructures to ensure the data is always accessible. Generally, the users pay for the cloud data storage on a per-per-usage basis at a monthly rate. Therefore, cloud storage is a scalable and cost-effective alternative for storing data on a local or on-premise storage network.

Video Cloud storage service providers have large data centres located at multiple locations where the data is securely stored on massive computer servers. Users can remotely upload, store and retrieve the data whenever required. As the data gets stored on servers, it can get easily accessed via a web interface. The chain of servers ensures data availability. When one server is under maintenance or fails to connect, the data is replicated on other servers to facilitate accessibility.

Cloud storage supports multiple file formats and sizes, including documents, videos, music, photos, movies, important files and more. After the files get uploaded on the cloud, you can easily sync and access them over a tablet, smartphone or other devices on the go. All you need is an internet connection and simple login to upload and download the stored data files anywhere in the world.

The data and files stored on the cloud are secure with encryption keys and strong password combinations. Cloud storage services also give the feature to restore accidentally deleted files or folders. Your data is securely stored in an online location with the ease of upload and download for a nominal storage fee.

History of Cloud Storage

Cloud storage was not directly invented and was a sub-product of cloud computing, believed to be invented in the 1960s by Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider. During this duration, Cloud computing was getting developed mostly to connect and share data from anywhere in the world. Also, the concept of time-sharing was getting popular among large vendors like IBM and DEC via RJE or Remote Job Entry, which later developed to form full-time sharing solutions by the early 1970s. Yet, the “data center” model was overwhelmingly predominant, where users used to submit computation jobs to operators on IBM’s mainframes.

In 1983, CompuServe started offering a small amount of disk space to its consumers to store any files on the cloud through its computing cloud infrastructure. By 1994, AT&T started offering PersonaLink Services, providing an online platform for personal and business communication via the cloud. It promoted its web-based storage solution as an electronic meeting place on the cloud.

Amazon Web Services started offering S3 services to businesses as web services in the United States on March 14, 2006. It further spread to Europe in November 2007 and is now present in 190 countries worldwide. AWS started with 10 billion objects in October 2007 and grew by ten times to 102 billion objects in March 2010. AWS cloud storage gained widespread adoption by popular services like SmugMug, Dropbox, and Pinterest. In 2005, Box also announced online file storage and sharing for businesses.

Cloud Video Storage solutions proved to be a success as it provided small, medium, and large-scale video creators an opportunity to replace the upfront capital investment. Earlier, with limited options, they had to bear the large capital cost of setting up servers, and it was still cumbersome to maintain them in multiple locations.

Cloud storage vs Physical Storage

Using a Cloud Storage solution has many benefits, like low investment in external storage devices. This means you pay for what you consume and not for the equipment. Being on the cloud also allows you to access all your applications and files from anywhere across the globe, anytime, through an internet-enabled client. The cloud storage process can be easily automated to prevent missing out or human error. Also, it is a highly scalable solution and runs on multiple servers and locations to ensure no data loss in case of any fault in a single server location. Apart from them, we have tried to draw a comparison between Cloud Storage and Physical Storage on various metrics, as discussed below, for better understanding.

Types of Video Cloud Storage

Different businesses and individuals have varying data and file storage requirements. For instance, banks and retail companies need secure and private data preprocessing and storage. On the other hand, e-learning platforms will need to store large video files of courses and tutorials. Thus, there are types of cloud storage catering to different storage requirements.

Public Cloud Storage: A cloud service provider offering services over the internet operate public cloud storage. The services are available remotely to anyone. The public storage can be either free or paid based on the storage, CPU usage, bandwidth consumed and more. The provider makes the services accessible through self-service portals, apps, smartphones or desktops. The shared cloud storage model offers flexibility, scalability, performance, security, storage cost reduction, universal accessibility and much more. Examples include Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure.

Private Cloud Storage: The cloud computing services setup resides within an organization’s own network or data centre in private cloud storage. The cloud storage infrastructure and services are privately hosted, managed by internal resources and not accessible by outsiders. Private cloud storage is also known as enterprise clouds. Private cloud storage services are provided using a public cloud provider’s infrastructure (virtual private cloud). The other types of private cloud storage are managed private cloud, hosted private cloud and on-premise private cloud.

Hybrid Cloud Storage: Hybrid cloud storage model manages data storage using both on-premise and public cloud resources. As public cloud storage cannot solve all the storage problems, the hybrid cloud model is evolving to combine the capabilities of both cloud architectures. Frequent changing workloads, data backup processes and disaster recovery planning are the most seen hybrid cloud scenarios. Hybrid cloud storage benefits businesses by offering high security, scalability, and cost-effectiveness as some resources move to the pay-per-usage model.

Advantages & Benefits of Video Cloud Storage

1. Accessibility

As the data gets backed up on the cloud, it becomes easily accessible from anywhere in the world. Storing videos on the cloud replaces the need of using physical storage devices as everything is online. All you need is a login credential and internet connection to access all your stored data and files. In addition, most of the video cloud providers store multiple versions of the data files, which significantly helps in disaster recovery. Backing up the resources on the cloud makes your data safe and easily accessible.

2. Cost-efficient

Opting for a cloud-hosted storage space reduces the expenses of buying and maintaining the internal storage resources. An organization itself does not need heavy inventory to store a high volume of video data files. Some cloud vendors offer flexible plans for a lifetime at a reasonable price, and at the same time, there is flexibility to scale the storage up and down.

3. Convenient file sharing

Cloud storage service platforms have a file-sharing feature to help share files with other users. The ‘Share’ option makes the files shareable with others, and you may invite others to view your data files. Mostly, the share option comes in a shareable link format that gets pasted anywhere you want. As per the granted permissions, the recipient can download or view it. There are also cloud storage services that offer cross-platform file sharing functionality.

4. Remote file synchronization

Files stored in a computer or cloud need frequent updates. Cloud files are remotely updated, and the file looks the same on every device accessing it. There is no need of copying data from one to another device. Instead, cloud storage providers give a cloud app to download called a ‘sync client’ to synchronize the files. The sync client on a device will instantly sync the files, removing any need for manual uploads or downloads.

5. Easily scalable

Cloud storage is highway flexible and scalable. In addition, most cloud providers offer a Pay-as-you-use model, which means you can easily increase the storage space when needed.

6. Security and File Encryption

When choosing a cloud storage partner, data safety is a primary concern for businesses. Cloud storages save the data across redundant servers, and even when a server collapses, the entire data gets safely managed by other servers. So the only case when the data is lost is when all the data centres of the servers collapse. This is nearly impossible as there are thousands of data centres. Most of the cloud services offer file encryption. The files are saved in an unreadable format and accessible only via the encryption key.

7. Disaster recovery

Cloud storage is a leading method to deal with the loss of data problem. Your data copies are stored on the cloud to ensure data safety in cases of system failure or cyberattacks. In case of data loss, cloud customers can easily retrieve the backup data from the cloud. Most cloud storage providers allow automated data backup and storage at different servers.

8. Makes remote working easy

The demand for cloud storage has increased many folds in recent years. With the world adopting remote or hybrid working models, cloud technology requirement comes in the first place. All the cloud files are accessible from anywhere, and you can pick up your work from where you left last time. Thus, it becomes manageable to work remotely on your files. Multiple users can collaborate on the same cloud file. The file owner has the right to grant access permissions to view or edit the files.

Methods to Upload Videos on Cloud Storage

Broadly, there are three ways to store videos on the cloud:

• The videos are directly uploaded via UI or API and streamed on a specific cloud platform like YouTube. These videos are also reusable on websites and other platforms supporting video embeds. Since they are mainly used for streaming on a specific cloud platform, they contain platform branding. When uploaded on another website, do accessibility testing to ensure your video can be seen without technical issues.
• The videos get uploaded via UI or API to some storage data center like Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage. These video links are reusable on websites and other platforms supporting video embeds. They do not contain any branding and are fully customizable.
• The videos are uploaded/imported via UI or API on feature-specific video cloud storage providers like VdoCipher, Dropbox, Vimeo, OneDrive, etc. These features can be security from piracy, personal app access, custom video player, etc. Platforms like VdoCipher also allow you to import your videos from other websites like Google Drive, Vimeo, Dropbox, AWS S3 or even from a URL. These video links are reusable on websites and other platforms supporting video embeds. They are customizable to contain your private branding too.

Challenges in Video Cloud Storage Setup

If you plan to set up your own Video Cloud Storage infrastructure, it requires not only setting up the upload and download process but also setting up security licenses and their integrations. To summarize the challenges, let us list four major stages required to set up a secure Cloud Video Storage.

• Cloud Storage directory creation and upload
• CDN setup for faster delivery
• Batch Transcoding for adaptive playback
• Applying DRM Encryption for protection against illegal downloads and video piracy

Since setting up your own server-based infrastructure is too capital-intensive and technical, small, medium, and large-scale video streaming providers mainly use a secure video cloud storage solution provider with a history of providing the best in class service and features. Best-in-class solution providers like VdoCipher can help you evade the challenges in the implementation part and the challenges in creating dashboards, APIs, etc., for easy integration.

Need of Security for Video Cloud Storage

Video cloud storage has always posed some concerns regarding the security of stored video files, security of video files during playback or streaming and is also a valuable target (eLearning and Media Platforms) for hackers as these videos can be sold illegally. For video creators looking for monetization or making the courses paid, protecting the videos from unauthorized access is important. Many viewers illegally download and stream the content if the video is not secured during the storage and streaming process. This leads to huge revenue loss for the creators as the content is readily available without paying. The content makers are less motivated to create high-quality content, affecting the viewers. As an estimate, the US economy loses $29 billion in revenue per year due to video piracy.

Companies like Netflix and Amazon Prime set up their in-house multi-DRM system by integrating Google Widevine and Apple Fairplay DRM with their Cloud Video Infrastructure. They use DRM as it is the most secure way of protecting video content from getting pirated. Small, medium, and large enterprises who cannot afford to set up their own DRM-based cloud video infrastructure use secure Video Cloud Storage solutions like VdoCipher. Apart from DRM protection, a solution provider like VdoCipher also provides the following security features.

• Dynamic watermarking discourages screen capture by displaying dynamic details like user ID, email, etc., over the video.
• VdoCipher iOS native SDK enables secure offline downloads on mobile devices.
• Google Play Integrity for app-based security to block playback on duplicate, rooted, and unauthorized apps. Check out our play integrity api documentation to know more.
• Geo-Restrictions for blacklisting or whitelisting specific countries

Best Video Cloud Storage Providers

VdoCipher – Most Secure Video Cloud Storage

Secure Video Cloud Storage, Vdocipher offers AWS powered server, CDN and transcoding infrastructure across 6 continents. You can upload the data from anywhere, be it server, desktop, dropbox or drive. Vdocipher dashboard or API automates the whole video upload/import process. Vdocipher eases the process of securing premium videos from authorized access by DRM encryption. The free trial includes 5 GB bandwidth for one month with a limit of 4 videos. Based on your bandwidth consumption, storage plan pricing varies. The ‘Starter’ plan offers 50 GB storage at $129/year. There are even ‘Enterprise’ plans for higher storage and bandwidth requirement.

Amazon S3

Amazon Simple Storage Service is an object-based cloud storage service which means you can store any file type in S3. Its bucket acts as end storage of a virtual Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution housed in the AWS cloud. S3 automatically creates copies of all the uploaded objects and store them in at least three availability zones. It has functionalities like versioning of files, encryption, uploading, or downloading content with a console panel. S3 offers different storage options, namely, Glacier, Standard, intelligent tiering, one-zone IA. With pay-as-you-go pricing, the plans begin with $0.023 per GB for the First 50 TB / Month. New AWS customers receive 5 GB of S3 storage (Standard) and 15 GB of data transfer per month for one year.

Google Cloud Storage

Google Cloud Storage stores objects (files of any format) in Google Cloud. A bucket container stores the objects. All buckets relate to a project and projects group under an organization. For example, you might create a bucket of videos and a separate photos bucket. There are various ways to connect with Google Cloud Storage. The Google Cloud Console provides a visual interface to manage data on a browser while the ‘gsutil’ tool interacts through a terminal. The Cloud Storage client libraries manage data in various languages, ava, Node.js, PHP, Python, C++, C#. Through data encryption, authentication, bucket lock, object versioning and IAM, the data gets secured. Cloud storage pricing depends on the data storage, network usage and operations performed. New customers get $300 in free credit for 3 months.

Microsoft OneDrive

OneDrive is Microsoft’s native cloud storage service having deep integration with Windows 10 and Microsoft 365. OneDrive has the rich photo and video editing tools seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Office. Having online storage accessible from the web, OneDrive maintains the original video quality and does not compress the videos while uploading. In addition, OneDrive offers automatic backup, real-time syncing, ransomware detection, image tagging and a personal vault to store the files securely. OneDrive Standalone charges $1.99 per month for 100 GB storage space. The basic free plan includes 5GB of storage. Also, other business plans for Microsoft 365 and OneDrive offer storage up to 6 TB.

Dropbox

Cloud storage and syncing service Dropbox offers a central hub for online file storage, syncing and sharing. Dropbox account is accessible with desktop apps on MAC and Windows, mobile apps, and web browsers. Dropbox comes with unique tools like Paper, Showcase, and HelloSign digital signature. Mainly useful functionality is ‘Smart Sync’, to choose which files you would like to sync on the hard drive. The unselected files remain on the cloud, thus saving the disk space. In addition, Dropbox offers security tools like two-factor authentication and 256-bit AES encryption. The free plan has 2 GB storage space, and pricing and the number of users increase with Professional, Standard and Advanced plans.

Azure Blob Storage

Microsoft’s Azure Blob Storage stores unstructured data, including documents, videos, pictures, backups and more. Blob stands for Binary Large Object. The unstructured data does not need to follow any particular data model. Azure Blob Storage caters to general storage purposes like storing data for backup and video files for distributed access. A block is a single Blob unit. The files known as Blobs get stored in blob containers, having similarities to directories in a file system, linking to the storage account. There cannot be more than 50,000 blocks per Blob, with each block size between 64kb-100MB. Blob can split into 50,000 blocks to upload to Azure Blobs storage, thus easing bulk file uploading. The pricing depends on data volume stored per month, type of operations performed and selected data redundancy option.

Apple iCloud Drive

Apple’s iCloud Drive works natively across Apple devices, Mac, iPhone, iPad and even Windows PC using an application. iCloud serves both storage and backup purpose, keeping all files and folders up-to-date. iCloud stores high fidelity images and videos and keeps the video quality intact. To all users, iCloud offers 5 GB of free storage. To get more storage and premium features, one can upgrade to iCloud+. Subscribers receive more storage for photos, backups and additional features. 50 GB storage costs $0.99, 299GB for $2.99 and 2TB for $9.99.

FAQs:

What is an S3 bucket?

One needs to create an S3 bucket in one of the AWS regions to upload data files. A bucket can contain any number of objects. An S3 bucket name is unique and cannot be used by another AWS account until the bucket gets deleted.

What are the three types of cloud data storage formats?

The three types of cloud data storage formats are file storage, object storage, and block storage.
File Storage: Files inside a folder store the data. Folders arrange into directories and subdirectories.
Object Storage: Data gets stored in discrete units called objects and given a unique identifier, key and optional metadata.
Block Storage: the data is broken into discrete pieces called objects and physically distributed across multiple environments.

What is the maximum size of the AWS S3 and Google Cloud Storage Object?

An AWS S3 or Google Cloud Storage object can have a file size between 1 byte and 5TB. If an object exceeds 5TB, it must be divided into maximum chunks of 5TB before uploading.

What is the difference between multi-cloud and hybrid cloud storage?

A multi-cloud environment utilizes multiple cloud storage services. For example, one may host exchange servers on Microsoft Azure and web front-end on AWS. On the other hand, Hybrid cloud storage involves private cloud infrastructure in conjunction with public cloud services.

Vishal Sharma

My expertise focuses on DRM encryption, CDN technologies, and streamlining marketing campaigns to drive engagement and growth. At VdoCipher, I’ve significantly enhanced digital experiences and contributed to in-depth technical discussions in the eLearning, Media, and Security sectors, showcasing a commitment to innovation and excellence in the digital landscape.

The post Video Cloud Storage advantages & How to couple it with Security appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.