Why do companies turn to file transfer services?
Companies usually make the switch to using satellite or terrestrial services for moving their digital content because of several key advantages: the ability to ensure their deadlines are met while reaching any needed location, knowing where their assets are at all times, and the elimination of network speed and capacity issues.
However, both satellite and terrestrial services are more expensive than optimizing your own network for digital content delivery. By using your own network, your company can have the advantages of satellite and terrestrial delivery services, while gaining a much more cost competitive solution which also allows more control over your content.
The Cost of Satellite
To better understand how a Content Distribution Management (CDM) software solution can save your company money, let's first look at the cost of satellite. To set up the infrastructure needed for a satellite network requires $650,000 to set up the uplink and $3,300 per location. The recurring costs to use your satellite network are $7,000 per month per megabit per second, which works out to $2.8 million annually for a 34 Mb transponder. Your marginal costs break down to be $21 per gigabyte.
This means that if you want to move a two hour HD movie, about 23 GB, it will cost you $480 per movie. If you are moving the content to over 100 locations, that may make sense, but if you are moving content to fewer locations, even if it is as many as 70, it makes sense to compare your costs and look for a cheaper alternative. It also makes sense to look for a cheaper alternative if you are looking to add another channel, add more content or switch from SD to HD, because all of these things will increase your satellite bill.
The Cost of Terrestrial Service
As companies have converted from tape to moving files digitally, several services have been created to allow you to move your content. They are a good alternative to FTP because you do not have the speed and capacity issues; however, the cost structure for these services is modeled after tape shipments and is comparable to satellite in fees per gigabyte. The set up costs are minimal for terrestrial services, but the rates can run anywhere from $20-25 per gigabyte, depending on your annual volume. When you break that down, it means your marginal costs are $20 per gigabyte per location. If you are sending a two hour HD movie, it will cost about $460 per movie.
The Cost of Private Content Distribution Management
In comparison, let's look at the cost of moving content on your own network using Content Distribution Management. To set up the infrastructure will cost your company $10,000 per site. The recurring costs depend on your existing network. You may be fine to use your current set up, but if you need to buy incremental bandwidth, a DS3 line allowing you to move 45 MB per second will cost you approximately $3,000 per month. The marginal costs break down to be 20 cents per gigabyte per location. So, the same two hour HD movie will only cost nine dollars to move. This means the cost to deliver digital content files on your own network is 50 to 100 times less than using a satellite network or terrestrial services.
Case Study - Replacing Satellite with CDM for Promo File Distribution
One of our customers was using satellite multi-cast to move 6 GB promo files to 17 locations. Their marginal costs were $23 per gigabyte or $138 per file. Using Terrestrial Signiant, their marginal costs were 20 cents per gigabyte or $1.20 per file. To move that file to 17 locations cost them $20.40, giving them a savings of $117.60 per file. This company distributes 25 promos per day, so their initial investment of $168,500 was paid back in 57 days. In less than two months they were able to recoup the costs of their move from satellite to Signiant.
Case Study - Replacing Terrestrial Service with CDM for Collaboration
A client who is a large content producer was using a terrestrial service provider to move content between five different locations. In order to create each episode of their show, 100 GB of content was moved around and edited collaboratively. It was costing them $2,000 per episode. When they switched to Signiant, they were able to reduce that cost to $20 per episode - a cost savings of $1,980 per episode. They were able to recoup their initial investment of $50,000 in 20-24 episodes, or in one season of one show.
What Can Signiant Do For You?
Optimize your bandwidth: No matter what type of network you have, our system allows you to get the maximum efficiency out of it. This allows you to deliver files quickly, meet your deadlines and get the most out of your existing bandwidth. Figure 3 shows a comparison between bandwidth efficiency of Signiant vs. TCP for a 40 GB Payload.
We'll manage your file transfers: With Signiant, you can see where your files are and manage your entire network with minimum overhead. We have complete networks moving millions of files and hundreds of terabytes being managed by two or three people. Signiant will manage and track all of your transfers. We'll apply bandwidth in an intelligent fashion where it's needed, so you will not step on your mission critical applications.
Increase your labor productivity: Not only can Signiant manage your file transfers, but we manage the processing of files, so tasks can be automated to reduce labor. Instead of someone uploading to a service or satellite, our system automates that process. Signiant also gives you the ability to do multi-sequenced tasks, which automates things like transcoding and quality control. For each step of the supply chain that is automated, you save labor. All of our customers using automation are seeing at least a 50% increase in labor efficiency.
Integrate with your existing products and services: Signiant integrates with your existing products and services so you can automate your current manual workflows without needing to replace them.
Conclusion
Satellite and terrestrial services are much more expensive than optimizing your own network for digital content delivery. A Content Distribution Management solution using your existing network can address your business needs and provide fast delivery while saving you money. You will have greater control and flexibility on your own network and you will reduce your costs considerably, anywhere from 50-100%.
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