About Building Software Defined Infrastructure

As an industry, we’ve now ticked box one of “how to build IP infrastructures” by reliably streaming video, audio and metadata over enterprise IP networks. Now, we need to greatly simplify IP broadcast infrastructures to improve their operation and integration.

This series seeks to clarify what is meant by Software Defined Infrastructure, how its fundamental design philosophy is key to the next evolutionary step for broadcast systems, and how it can benefit broadcasters with scalability, reliability, resilience and very high levels of security.

We discuss the fundamental differences between virtualization and microservices and how microservice based systems go hand in hand with Software Defined Networks in the design and implementation of truly scalable systems.

The next phase of our IP enabled journey is going to be one of delivering simplicity and integration through microservices. For IP to become the success it promises, we need to look more closely at how we make it work operationally so that simplicity and integration become as easy as maintaining a high-quality internet mobile phone connection when walking from the office to the park.

Building Software Defined Infrastructure will publish in 4 parts. Details of all four parts can be found HERE.

About Part 1 – System Topologies

Part 1 is a free PDF download which contains four original articles:

Article 1 : What Is Software Defined Infrastructure?
What Software Defined Infrastructure is, what infrastructure models it enables and a discussion of on- and off-prem cloud infrastructure.

Article 2 : Virtualization Vs Microservices
How virtualization and microservices differ, and workflows where virtualization and microservices would be used or avoided in terms of reliability, flexibility and security.

Article 3 : Virtualizing Idle Time
Our partner Lawo discuss why “software-defined” as an approach should be considered a prerequisite in any forward-looking, IP-based broadcast environment.

Article 4 : Software Defined Infrastructure Components
How microservices form the basis of Software Defined Infrastructure and why they provide much better solutions for broadcasters, especially when considering scalability, resilience and security.