Over the past years, lecture capture cloud solutions have proliferated to the point that they’re as ubiquitous as those big white fluffy masses high in the sky. But just like the cirrus, cumulus and cumulonimbus structures you learned about in junior high meteorology, not all IT clouds are created equal.
There’s cloud technology and then there’s true cloud technology—and knowing the difference is a matter of knowing your prepositions—specifically, the difference between “in” and “of.”
“In the Cloud”: Just Dropped In
Step 1: Move the database from the data center to the cloud. Step 2: Call it a “cloud solution” and wait for the checks to roll in. Many lecture capture solutions are just shoehorned into the cloud as an afterthought. But this approach of “lifting and dropping” solution architecture into cloud hosting comes with limitations:
- Virtual machines and networks are not engineered to dynamically scale over time
- Same-solution infrastructure isn’t designed for multi-tenancy
- Hosting via discrete data centers makes it challenging to serve clients around the globe
- Proprietary software keeps functions like messaging and monitoring on a tiny island—isolated in a vast sea of development possibilities and captive to significant performance and reliability penalties
- There’s still only one chokepoint for system performance and failure
“Of the Cloud”: Built from the Ground Up—With Benefits
This type of solution exists beyond your premises, in a vendor’s data center, in a university colocation facility, or through a simple “in the cloud” arrangement. It’s tightly woven into the fabric of the cloud and designed from scratch to tap into this exciting world of capabilities. The many benefits include:
- Scalability and consistency of service via a nimble, instantly responsive system that takes full advantage of the cloud’s capabilities for dynamic monitoring and automatic provisioning
- Better data management through a massively distributed, not centralized, database solution
- Point-and-click archiving that makes data available to users wherever they are, via a seamless natural storage hierarchy from the database to the deep archive
- Content delivered locally, anywhere on the globe, with a solution carefully architected to take advance of “edge replication” services throughout the global cloud
- Multi-tenancy via a highly distributed runtime solution designed to support all customers
- “Of the cloud” operational intelligence that enables swift service provisioning, interface adaptation and rerouted requests.
What’s more, an “of the cloud” lecture capture solution gives you exponentially better service at a far lower cost than any other option.
When life hands you something that’s better and costs 89% less, welcome the gift! That was our customers’ reaction when they began using the Echo360 true cloud technology to power lecture capture, grounded in research into their needs. Read the detailed cloud comparisons—and how we got to that 89% savings figure—in this whitepaper.
Thanks to Joshua Earle and the folks at Unsplash for the fantastic (and free!) photo!