A Buyers' Guide to Online Video Platforms

The majority of streaming media professionals have heard of content delivery networks (CDN), online video platforms (OVP) and other kinds of public video distribution tools, but there is one type of business video platform that has managed to remain under the radar. Enterprise video is intended to assist business enterprises operate more efficiently and safely share content inside of their firewalls. If you’re thinking of adding video to your business to educate sales teams and engage customers more effectively, then it’s best that you learn some of the more popular applications and what options to consider.
Top Categories of Services and Applications
An enterprise delivery platform is a type of player-based technology that is created for streaming on-demand and live video sharing inside of a business enterprise. In most cases, this type of service is utilized through peer-to-peer delivery as a way to allow network nodes to stream sections of video back and forth. Often an enterprise delivery platform proves to be a better alternative than unicast delivery where individual viewers have to use a unique stream.
Enterprise content delivery networks are any type of service or product that utilizes an enterprise infrastructure that’s already in place in addition to using supplemental technology, such as peer-to-peer delivery and multicasting, to share on-demand and live business videos inside of an enterprise.
With enterprise YouTube you have a service or product that allows business enterprises to develop an internal application similar to YouTube that can be shared with partners, employees and customers as a way to give stakeholders the ability to publish and upload videos in a secure way.
Enterprise video portals oversee all of an enterprise’s video content and give partners, customers and employees access through plug-ins and custom portals. An enterprise video portal is the most varied product category and can share features of the other three.
Questions to Ask When Shopping for Enterprise Video Platforms
No two businesses are alike, which means that no two businesses will use the same platform. Before you decide on a platform, there are few questions that you’ll want to get answers to.

• How is the product priced? You’ll find different pricing for different vendors. The platform can be priced by how many encoders it has, the number of servers it uses or by the number of employees you have. You’ll be better off starting your search with a budget in mind, just remember that you want an enterprise video platform that will grow with your business and with the number of employees that you have.
• What kind of content does it work with? The video platform that you decide on should be able to share various types of content, including lecture-based content and web interfaces.
• What function does the product perform? The product classes touched on are very different in terms of their functionality. Before you buy a video platform, check to see if it has encoding capabilities or if it will only work with the content that you currently have. If the platform is able to encode, will you have adaptive streams or a single stream to work with? Check to see what kind of platforms it will be able to reach.

Pick your enterprise video platform carefully and think about the future of your business while making your decision. Even if you spend more money than you originally plan, it could be worth it in the long run.
image via KZO