This is a tricky subject for us to discuss, because we clearly have a vested interest as a video hosting service provider. That being said, if you are looking into self-hosting your videos, there are some key issues to consider before taking the plunge.
Efficiency
The first and foremost point is efficiency. Even if you have a lot of videos, your storage and bandwidth needs are still going to be less than if you pooled your content with other sites, so you will wind up paying a lot more per GB. Video hosting providers are able to negotiate better rates with CDNs because they handle more volume in both bandwidth and storage. Even after taking their margin into account, you are likely getting a better deal on each GB of storage and bandwidth than if you try to go it alone.
Resources
You have to consider what you are getting for your expenditure. Investing in a content distribution network, video player and encoding services can add up, and that’s without taking into consideration the time required to research and optimize all of those components, or the tech resources required to get them set up. If you aren’t a video hosting provider, it is worth considering whether the costs of diverting resources from your main business outweigh the benefits of self-hosting.
Analytics and Security
If you go it alone, you are unlikely to have sophisticated analytics, or granular security, sharing, and privacy controls that you should expect when shopping for a video hosting provider.
Here’s a peek at SproutVideo’s analytic platform:
Customer Support
What if one of the components in your system stops working? You are your own customer support if you are self-hosting. You also have to deal with all the maintenance and upgrades as your video library expands and technology changes. New browsers, updates, and video types are being created all the time and it can be a lot to stay on top of.
Video hosting services are scalable and specialized. It is our job to stay on top of all the technology changes and optimization so you don’t have to worry about it. Got any questions about how to get started? Please reach out to support@sproutvideo.com, or catch us on live chat.
