Signiant creates Microsoft Azure pre-built content workflow


Details

Michelle Clancy

| 14 April 2016




Intelligent file movement specialist Signiant has announced the availability of a pre-built workflow that provides tight integration with the Microsoft Azure Media Services (AMS) platform.



signiantThe automated workflow uses Signiant acceleration technology to transport content files quickly and securely from on-premises storage into Microsoft Azure, where AMS retrieves and processes the assets. The finished content is then returned to an on-premises location via Signiant.

The combined solution provides media companies with a means of accessing Microsoft’s cloud transcoding capabilities from on-premises infrastructure, allowing them to take advantage of the elastic nature of such services.

The transcoding workflow is controlled by the automation engine incorporated in Signiant’s flagship Manager+Agents (M+A) solution. M+A functionality has been extended to the cloud via integration with the company’s Flight offering – a fully-managed, auto-scaling SaaS solution that provides fast, reliable, secure movement of content to and from Azure blob storage. The high-speed transport backbone of most major media enterprises is already powered by M+A, so existing workflows can be extended to a public cloud platform such as Azure simply by adding Flight.

“Our customers are increasingly turning to the cloud for various media storage and processing tasks,” said Margaret Craig, CEO, Signiant. “The Azure team is continuing to innovate on this front, and we’re confident that by combining the power of our technologies we can enable customers to quickly deploy robust cloud workflows that solve real problems.”

The Signiant workflow delivers media assets to Azure, along with an optional premium or standard transcoding profile. It monitors the transcode within AMS, reporting progress or error messages to the customer. The workflow can also be configured to delete processed assets from AMS once they have been successfully downloaded. The workflow combines both Signiant M+A and Azure’s scalability to allow multiple transcoding jobs to be handled concurrently.

“We’re pleased to work with Signiant to extend the AMS ecosystem,” said Sudheer Sirivara, GM, Azure Media & CDN, Microsoft. “Fast, secure upload and download of high-value digital assets is a key element in cloud-based media workflows, and Signiant’s SaaS approach aligns well with customer needs for fast, easy deployment.”

Earlier in the month, Signiant announced the integration of its Manager + Agents solution with the Avid Interplay | MAM system. Using Signiant’s proprietary transport technology, M+A is claimed to be able to move files up to 200 times faster than standard Internet transfers and protects valuable content with a comprehensive security model. The integration means that customers can initiate accelerated file transfers from within Interplay | MAM, a media asset management system that enables teams to ingest, import, manage, find and deliver media in a mixed Avid and third-party environment