IBC 2018: IBM Aspera provides updates on multiple projects

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Friday, September 14, 2018 - 08:02
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At the IBC show, IBM Aspera (stand 7.B25) will introduce an extensive set of product updates designed to provide faster, easier access to Aspera technology and to enable more customers than ever before to use Aspera’s industry-leading high-speed data transfer solutions. As the growth in video production, content generation and media storage all continue to explode throughout the world, advanced transfer technologies have become absolutely essential to the daily operations of many businesses within the media industry. The pioneer of file transfer solutions, Aspera continues to aggressively expand its capabilities across all major clouds to provide scalable, reliable infrastructure with the global reach required to meet the needs of live broadcasts, on demand video, and OTT content solutions.

Stream With Ease and Transfer On Demand
New product innovations have been introduced to ensure Aspera customers get up and running fast. The Aspera Streaming for Video solution, powered by FASPStream™ technology, now offers a new ability to quickly and easily launch and monitor connections within a simple web-based UI. We are also previewing the new Aspera Streaming for Video Connection Manager, which offers auto-discovery, management and monitoring of streaming devices to enable quick and easy live and near-live streaming globally over commodity internet, even when facing difficult network conditions.

New automation functionality within Aspera on Cloud helps users quickly configure event-driven transfer workflows. Organizations can streamline content delivery workflows by allowing transfers to be triggered by an action such as a submission to a Shared Inbox or shared folder, or an API call.

Stream High Bit Rate Video at Scale Over Global IP Networks
Built to revolutionise the way live and near-live high definition video is delivered, IBM® Aspera Streaming for Video software can replace or minimize the use of expensive satellite and dedicated fiber with the timely delivery of any bit rate video over unmanaged public internet. The underlying FASPStream protocol can also be seamlessly embedded via a set of APIs that enable a new, broader set of IP network and cloud-based use cases and workflows.

With the latest version of the software, users can quickly launch, stop and monitor video streams through a new web-based user interface.

A preview of the upcoming Connection Manager showcases a robust, easy-to-use web application in Streaming for Video that enables:

  • Auto-discovery of network streaming devices for fast, simple set-up
  • Centralized monitoring of streaming network devices (online/offline)
  • Location status (online/offline) and management features
  • View devices, streams, and connections from any vantage point (both sending and receiving locations)

Pervasive and Proven Technology
Aspera’s data transfer ecosystem has grown substantially, providing the broadest, most accessible transfer technology to customers, partners, SaaS and software vendors, and appliance manufacturers. The technology powers over a hundred technology partnerships and joint partner solutions, including T-21 who has embedded Aspera’s technology into its appliances to rapidly and securely transport video with low overhead and low delay over the public internet. New this fall is the KnoxMediaHub solution that uses Aspera on Cloud for content submission into their SaaS distribution and management platform.

The Aspera on Cloud SaaS offering is now hosted in 28 data centers spanning all market-leading clouds around the globe. The service has been translated into multiple languages including Spanish, French, Chinese, and more. As a result, in the months since the April 2018 release of Aspera on Cloud, more than 2500 organizations have utilized the service to send, share and upload over fifteen petabytes of data across global distances and between multiple clouds. Growth of the Aspera customer base has also been fueled by a new ability to purchase through the IBM online marketplace in 59 different countries as well as through an expanded set of IBM global business partners and system integrators.

Several IBM technologies have also been updated to include easy access to Aspera’s high-speed transfer capabilities. The latest, IBM Cloud Object Storage, allows users to leverage the Aspera high-speed transfer technology to ingest data to the IBM Cloud by simply clicking a button. Customers can add additional Cloud storage targets as well as sharing and collaboration functionality when they upgrade to an Aspera on Cloud subscription.

IBM Aspera on Cloud
Using IBM Aspera on Cloud, organizations can seamlessly access, send and share data stored across multiple clouds and on-premises data centers. Internal and external users collaborate over the data in a secure environment that tightly controls access to content and application functionality. Large files and data sets are transferred across storage environments using Aspera’s patented FASP protocol and Direct-to-Cloud technology.

Since the launch of IBM Aspera on Cloud in March 2018, we have continued to make significant updates to the hosted solution, including:

  • Enhancements to reporting, including detailed activity and volume monitoring, and updates to the notifications functionality of Shared Inboxes
  • A preview of the ability to trigger transfers and notifications based upon receipt of a file into a Shared Inbox or shared folder
  • New capability to tether and centrally manage high-availability clusters running Aspera High-Speed Transfer Server v3.9.
  • Expanded presence across all major cloud platforms in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia
  • New translations of the user interface into Spanish, French, Simple and Traditional Chinese, Japanese, German, Korean, and Russian
  • Continued emphasis on a streamlined user experience and improved usability with newly-integrated guided tours and application walkthroughs

Enhanced Performance Across the Platform
Transfer more data at higher speeds and with improved reliability, using industry-standard encryption and failsafe bandwidth control. The Aspera High-Speed Transfer platform now features a new encryption module built around OpenSSL AES-GCM, which improves encrypted transfer rates by up to 200%. In addition, our new adaptable rate controller is more robust than ever, preventing overdrive failures when network conditions fluctuate. Enhancements to the core FASP technology have been incorporated into all Aspera software.

  • Faspex 4.2
    • Aspera Faspex 4.2 provides key enhancements that include HTTP-native transfers to enable easier deployments in highly secure environments, and faster post-transfer file processing with new file validation “out-of-transfer” option.
  • Drive 3.2
    • This latest release features an updated installer, and can now be run in Linux as a daemon, and includes automated download functionality of Aspera Cargo.
  • Aspera on Cloud Mobile
    • The Aspera on Cloud Mobile app for iOS and Android extends many of the capabilities of the main application to your mobile device to enable you to quickly share and exchange files.
  • Orchestrator 3.1
    • This 3.1 release builds upon the 3.0 release to add new functionality which improves workflow developer collaboration with version control, easier deployment and added testing capabilities, as well as visualization enhancements for the dependency chart and dashboards. New plug-ins are available for Amazon DynamoDB and SimpleDB, Dolby QC, and Aspera on Cloud.
  • Console 3.3
    • This latest release of Aspera Console offers a number of enhancements including the ability to transfer between Node API endpoints, added security configurations, and support for rake tasks.

IBM Aspera High-Speed Transfer Platform
The core transport platform is the foundation upon which all Aspera offerings run, both on-premises and in the cloud, including the latest multi-tenant Aspera on Cloud service. Version 3.9 of the platform provides additional enhancements to Aspera’s core technology to:

  • Drastically increase encrypted transfer speeds by up to 200% while reducing CPU load by as much as 75% using a revised encryption model that incorporates the industry standard AES-GCM encryption.
  • New loss-adjusted-queue rate controller option that is highly resilient to challenging network conditions.
  • New Aspera Event Journal (AEJ) integration with ascp that allows customers to send data to into the cloud for centralized monitoring and reporting within the Aspera on Cloud Activity app.

The following summarizes some of the most significant features and capability enhancements of the version 3.8 core transport platform released in the Spring of 2018:

  • Ascp and Ascp4 advancements for increased transfer speed and performance
  • Aspera Proxy for greater security
  • Enhanced Node API transfer management to support advanced multi-tenancy and clustering
  • Aspera Sync enhancements
  • File handling and automation (Watchfolders & Watch Service)
  • Updated and expanded OS and storage support

Featured Partner Solutions

  • T-21
    • T-21’s hardware solutions enable media companies to encode, decode, transcode, record and translate network protocols for high-quality streaming over IP networks. Aspera’s FASPStream technology has been fully embedded in their latest line of encoders and decoders to provide glitch-free broadcast quality streaming over commodity internet connections without any additional software or hardware.
  • Irdeto
    • Irdeto, a world leader in digital platform security, has partnered with Aspera to offer a solution which allows content owners and distributors to rapidly and efficiently deliver content across the world while mitigating the impact of online piracy. This joint solution seamlessly inserts watermarks into the current workflow in real-time as bytes are transferred with no impact on delivery quality or speed.
  • EditShare
    • EditShare has partnered with Aspera to tightly integrate the patented Aspera FASP technology into its Flow Automation solution. This ensures the fastest and most reliable performance of time-critical workflows that include the ingest and delivery of large high-resolution media content to or from disparate locations across countries and continents.
  • KnoxMediaHub
    • KnoxMediaHub uses Aspera on Cloud to enable content submission into their SaaS distribution and management platform. The joint solution provides rapid data transfer with complete traceability to ensure delivery and accurate licensing in a flexible, pay per use offering.
  • Telestream
    • The Aspera FASPStream technology has been integrated into Telestream’s Lightspeed Live, a scalable, multi-channel on-premise capture solution for ingesting live, live linear or tape-based media directly into production, post-production and broadcast workflows. With the integration of Aspera’s high-quality streaming, Lightspeed Live offers the world’s first remote live editing solution over commodity internet.

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