Transitioning Away from Azure Media Services: The Path Forward

Microsoft has announced the withdrawal of Azure Media Services on June 30, 2024, prompting organizations and developers reliant on AMS for their streaming workflows to seek alternative solutions.

While Microsoft's article on Azure Media Services' retirement suggests several migration partners primarily offering Azure-based proprietary services, a notable shift is observed as many entities explore options beyond, aiming to fulfill their video processing and delivery requisites with a different cloud service provider.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) with its Media Services emerges as a popular choice for many. The reasons are multifaceted, including AWS's capability to support major video platforms like Twitch or Peacock effortlessly and its substantial investment in Media Services and the broader media & entertainment sector, evident from their frequent product updates.

For those contemplating a cloud provider switch yet concerned about potential disruptions to their business operations, this blog post aims to demystify the migration process.

Initial Steps: Opting for an Azure Media Services Alternative

Before deciding a new service provider, anticipating a detailed migration strategy is required. The prospective provider will likely require a consultation session to understand your current setup and future technological or business needs.

Potential discussion points include:

• The type of your video content: Live, video on demand (VOD), or both, including specifics on event-based streaming or continuous live channels, and whether live broadcasts are archived.

• Video formats: Detailing codecs (e.g., H.264, HEVC) and streaming protocols (e.g., HLS, MPEG-DASH, CMAF) in use or preferred.

• Volume of content: Quantified in hours for VOD or by event/channel count for live streams.

• Audience metrics: Viewer numbers for VOD or live content and CDN traffic data.

• Video player: Whether a proprietary player (Azure Cloud-based or otherwise) or a third-party service is utilized.

• Content protection measures: Specifying requirements for access restrictions, geoblocking, or DRM encryption compatibility with your current player.

What Can We Choose as an AWS Alternative

On-demand Encoding

Role: Facilitates the conversion of video files into different formats suitable for online streaming, ensuring compatibility across devices and internet speeds.

AWS Alternative: AWS Elemental MediaConvert serves as an effective alternative to Azure's On-demand Encoding service. It enables the conversion of video files into diverse formats to meet various online streaming requirements. This service ensures compatibility across different devices and adjusts to different internet speeds, providing an expanded solution for media processing and delivery.

Live Streaming

Role: Enables the live broadcasting of video content to viewers over the internet.

AWS Alternative: AWS Elemental MediaLive offers a solution for live video processing, allowing the broadcasting of live video content over the internet with high quality across multiple platforms. The purpose of this AWS service is to handle the complexities of live video processing, making it suitable for various live broadcasting scenarios. Additionally, Amazon Interactive Video Service (IVS) allows you to create channels and start streaming in minutes as a managed, live-video streaming service.

On-Demand Streaming

Role: Make the streaming of pre-recorded video content on-demand easy.

AWS Alternative: For on-demand streaming, AWS Elemental MediaConvert is an appropriate service focusing on transcoding content into various formats for playback on different devices. Other than that, Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is used for storing processed media files. Amazon CloudFront, ensures efficient and low-latency delivery of on-demand content to a global audience for content distribution as an AWS's CDN service by enhancing the overall streaming experience.

Content Protection Workflows

Role: Protects media content against unauthorized use.

AWS Alternative: AWS Elemental MediaPackage is an AWS alternative and proficient in encryption and Digital Rights Management (DRM) for content protection. This service encrypts content and supports multiple DRM standards, ensuring secure delivery to various devices. Also, AWS Elemental MediaLive can integrate with third-party DRM solutions for live streaming content protection, and provides a comprehensive approach to secure live and on-demand media workflows.

Azure Media Player

Role: A media player for delivering streaming content.

AWS Alternative: Amazon IVS offers a video player SDK for embedding live, interactive video streams into web and mobile applications while AWS does not provide a direct alternative with an integrated video player like Azure Media Player. Businesses typically combine AWS Elemental Media Services with third-party video players such as JWPlayer or Video.js to achieve a comprehensive streaming solution.

Simplifying Azure Media Services Transition

Migrating from Azure Media Services can appear overwhelming, but with the right provider and solution, it need not disrupt daily operations.

The retirement of Azure Media Services poses both challenges and prospects for media industry enterprises. Through careful evaluation of AWS alternatives and strategic planning, organizations can smoothly transition to sustain their media activities seamlessly.

Should there be any inquiries about the migration or AWS Media Services, our all AWS certified team is ready to provide clarity and support.