With the retirement of Azure Media Services (AMS) and Azure Media Player already underway and set to be completed by June 30th, 2024, it’s critical for businesses to act swiftly and consider their migration options. Gcore Streaming Platform is a compelling solution for those seeking a robust streaming platform. This article will guide you through the key advantages of Gcore’s Streaming Platform, explain the migration process from AMS, and address frequently asked questions about transitioning to Gcore.
Gcore Streaming Platform: An Overview
Gcore Streaming Platform is an integrated cloud-based solution that provides a complete ecosystem for video and audio streaming—with a vast array of features and truly global support. It encompasses encoding, live streaming, on-demand streaming, content protection, and video analytics. Gcore is a number one European CDN network, having a truly global distribution across the world with over 150 points of presence, including developed and emerging markets. As a result, Gcore provides capabilities to stream with an impressive low latency delivery.
While Microsoft suggests partner solutions like Harmonic, MediaKind, Bitmovin, and Ravnur as alternatives to AMS due to their pre-existing partnerships within the Azure ecosystem, these solutions often fall short compared to Gcore’s cloud infrastructure, which on the contrary, is able to remove all current solutions limitations.
Key Advantages of Gcore’s Platform
- Robust infrastructure: Gcore isn’t just a streaming solution—it is capable of providing the whole suite for your media: from video storage and transcoding to delivery and analytics.
- Global presence: Gcore’s extensive Edge Network provides low latency and high-quality content delivery to audiences worldwide. Gcore’s CDN network of 150+ points-of-presence (PoPs) extends across six continents, ensuring optimal delivery to a global audience and offering a strong presence in the EU, as well as in developed and emerging markets.
- Excellent scalability: Gcore’s robust infrastructure seamlessly handles massive volumes of data, ensuring uninterrupted streaming for even the largest events and content libraries. Multicast broadcasting of your streams to 100+ million viewers while eliminating any video content delivery disruptions for time-sensitive content.
- Quick & seamless integration: Gcore integrates seamlessly with numerous popular content management systems (CMS) and e-commerce platforms, web and mobile apps, eliminating the need for custom development, as well as simplifying content management and monetization.
- Flexible VOD content protection: Implement robust DRM capabilities to secure your terms and full compliance with enterprise policies.
- Advanced feature set: Gcore’s comprehensive suite of streaming features includes:
- Live and on-demand streaming: Experience unparalleled performance and scalability for both live events and on-demand content.
- AI and ML integration: Optimize and personalize your content using cutting-edge AI and ML technologies.
- Unified streaming operations: Eliminate the complexity of multiple third-party integrations with Gcore’s integrated solution.
- Precise and efficient stream management: Gcore provides real-time stream ingestion and packaging, stream pre-processing, and stream monitoring and analytics.
- Competitive pricing: Gcore’s competitive pricing models, such as convenient and transparent per-minute pricing and enterprise discounts & offers, catered to diverse needs based on usage volume.
Migration from Azure Media Services to Gcore Streaming Platform
The process of getting up and running with Gcore is straightforward. It can be completed in as little as a few hours, depending on the complexity of your current setup.
Streaming integration
Gcore offers two flexible implementation options to suit your specific streaming needs:
- Streaming directly from CDN: If your media server produces a stream in HLS format, you can create and set up a CDN resource with special settings for playlists (.m3u8) and chunks (.ts.)
- Streaming via Gcore Streaming Platform with CDN: For non-HLS streams or to benefit from Gcore’s advantages and additional features, use the Gcore Streaming Platform. The platform provides a comprehensive set of tools for managing and optimizing your stream.
Your engineers can set up streaming by themselves or let us take care of it—Gcore’s experts will be delighted to configure your CDN and Streaming Platform for optimized results.
Asset migration
Migration to Gcore’s Streaming services won’t require much time and resource allocation from your side—and of course, we’re here to help. Simplify the transition from your existing video hosting platform with our migration services and automated data migration tools.
FAQ
Which Azure Media Services (AMS) services can Gcore replace?
Microsoft is retiring four core services: Encoding, VOD streaming, live streaming, and Azure Media Player. Gcore provides a full suite of solutions, from S3 and SFTP storage to video streaming and CDN.
How much time do I have to make the transition?
Azure Media Services has announced an accelerated retirement with no grace period, and the creation of new Media Services accounts has already been blocked in some Azure regions. Act promptly to ensure a smooth migration before June 30, 2024.
Do I need to re-encode my videos for Gcore?
When migrating your media, in most cases, you will have to re-encode videos, but migrating to Gcore will be easy and smooth, as we will do it ourselves. And, of course, in dedicated cases, it’s possible to keep videos as they were: we understand the investment you’ve made in encoding, and your videos will continue to stream flawlessly with Gcore, saving you both time and resources.
How does Gcore ensure content protection?
You can rely on Gcore to protect your media assets with options like AES-128, HLS Encryption, and DRM. For private streaming, we use signed URLs and secure tokens, geo-restrictions (geo-blocking), domain-level privacy, and watermarking. Additionally, Gcore offers a powerful DDoS Protection solution with a total filtering capacity of more than 1 Tbps, which can be easily integrated with Streaming Platform services.
Do I have to change my video URLs?
Yes, you will need to change your URLs when switching to Gcore’s services.
Conclusion
With Azure Media Services retiring, Gcore’s Streaming Platform is an obvious replacement. Its global presence, competitive pricing, comprehensive feature set, and dedicated migration support make it an ideal choice for businesses seeking a reliable and cost-effective solution for their media streaming needs. To learn more about Gcore Streaming platform, download our comprehensive white paper or contact our experts today.
