Balancing the Quality and Cost of Online Video (cont.)

The Streaming Video Advantage

Second, bringing on a CDN partner can save on hardware costs, including both capital and operational expenditures. Managing a content delivery network requires purchasing web servers, application servers, and router switches, among other equipment. The initial cash outlay is one thing, but there are also costs in maintaining these hardware purchases. For many content delivery operations, it is cheaper to outsource infrastructure needs than it is to own and operate the hardware.

Finally, from a staffing perspective, using a CDN provider cuts down on the need to hire in-house experts. Not only can that get expensive, but you may not be equipped to recruit, train, and support specialists in CDN infrastructure.

The money-saving benefits of hiring a CDN partner are noteworthy, but they’re only part of the equation. Equally critical are the ways in which a CDN partner can support your business growth, both in terms of cost predictability and quality of service. Cost predictability lets you refine your business model to drive the highest possible profits. Consistent quality of service lets you build your reputation and your audience base.

Measuring Performance

Once you’ve partnered with a CDN provider, the best way to improve return on investment is to measure results, starting with content availability, start-up time, and re-buffer ratios.

The first metric is defined very simply. Are viewers able to see your content? If not, is the problem system-wide or isolated to specific areas? Content availability is the most basic of delivery measurements and can be impacted by server performance, bandwidth capacity, and many other factors. Pinpointing the origin of an availability problem is critical to repairing the consumer connection as quickly as possible, subsequently optimizing the overall delivery system and protecting your revenue stream.

Start-up time is a key metric for customer satisfaction and customer retention. The quality of the viewing experience is heavily dependent on how quickly video starts playing once a consumer visits your site. Long start-up times usually correlate with fewer viewers, and when the problem is corrected, it can dramatically increase audience sizes.

Lastly, re-buffer ratios measure how much time viewers spend buffering video after a stream has started playing. Again, it is strongly correlated with customer satisfaction and can be addressed by optimizing your content delivery system based on changing factors of consumer demand, file sizes, and content popularity.

When you measure the effectiveness of your content delivery system, you maximize your CDN investment and gain the flexibility to expand your business with a focus on core content development and monetization. Choosing a web performance measurement partner, such as Gomez, is a key part of saving money and driving revenues in the content business. For more information, visit www.gomez.com.