14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft's Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) platform has evolved with the addition of virtualization support, the company informs. In this sense, the software giant becomes the first provider of IPTV platforms to bring virtualization to the world of IPTV. And in order to do this, the company is leveraging the hypervisor technology associated with the Windows Server 2008 operating system, namely Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. According to Microsoft, IPTV companies can take advantage of the new virtualization capabilities of Mediaroom in order to reduce by as much as sixfold the server hardware required to run their services. Such a move opens up Mediaroom to operators of small IPTV services with stringent cost limitations.
“Mediaroom with virtualization provides the industry’s lowest platform footprint for deploying a full IPTV service,” revealed Andreas Mueller-Schubert, general manager for the TV, Video and Music Business at Microsoft. “Given the pressures of today’s economic environment, the reduction in capital expenditure and ongoing efficiencies make Mediaroom with virtualization an attractive proposition for operators of all sizes as they launch and grow their IPTV businesses.”
Microsoft has done the math, and the results are sufficient to catch the attention of IPTV operators. The Redmond company claims that by leveraging the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Mediaroom marriage, customers will be able to deploy and operate IPTV services for 30,000 subscribers with an infrastructure of just 10 physical servers. At the same time, Microsoft indicates that mixed virtualized and physical servers can fuel the services for even more than 30,000 subscriber homes.
“As IPTV becomes more mainstream, the industry must find a way to lower deployment costs. Mediaroom with virtualization does just that by reducing the overall number of servers that need to be deployed,” said Vince Vittore, principal analyst at Yankee Group Research Inc. “This development comes at a time when consumers are demanding the ability to access their content regardless of location or device. Mediaroom with virtualization gives service providers of all shapes and sizes a chance to fulfill this demand.”
Even when running with a mix of virtualized and physical servers at the backend, Mediaroom is still capable of delivering the same range of features as when it is deployed exclusively on physical machines. Subscribers will still be able to access video on demand, DVR Anywhere, Mediaroom Anytime, high-definition video, on-demand content, multiview, instant channel zapping, etc.