The Cloud War: Battlefront IBC (2 of 4)

At IBC2019, the biggest international conference for the Media & Entertainment industry I am evaluating which cloud provider is showing up with the most substantial ecosystem to tackle the concerns of the industry. If you'd like to get up to speed on some of the major themes of the conference or learn about the showing by AWS check out the first post in the series.

This article article focuses on Microsoft/Azure, the #2 cloud provider in the outside of the M&E industry by market share:

Interestingly the Microsoft both at IBC 2019 demoed as "Microsoft", not Azure, while Amazon was all in on their cloud brand (AWS).

With 22% of overall marketshare (per Gartner in 2019) I was expecting a strong overall showing.

Judging by the ecosystem presented at the conference, Microsoft is really only in 3 place between our contenders (Amazon, Google, IBM) showing up with a vendor ecosystem, but not the strongest aligned with industry needs. The biggest advantage they showed was in the desktop vs. terminal editing bay presence with Teradici (expanded on below). Where they faltered Microsoft filled in the gaps themselves, showcasing "Microsoft" or "Azure" where a partner would have been better placed.

IBC 2019 - Azure Partners

Teradici

• Industry: Computer Software
• Headquarters: Burnaby, BC
• Website: http://www.teradici.com
• CEO: David Smith
• Revenue: ~19.9M / 204 employees
• Specialties: PCoIP® (PC-over-IP®), Cloud Access Software, Remote Workstations, Management Console, Remote Display Protocol, zero clients, PCoIP zero clients, cloud computing, virtual desktops, and virtual workstations
• Summary: Teradici is the technology leader for creating virtual workspaces and powers the spectrum of local, remote, mobile and collaborative workstyles, fundamentally simplifying how computing is provisioned, managed and used throughout virtual and cloud environments. 

Cinegy

• Industry: Broadcast Media
• Headquarters: Munich, DE
• Website: http://www.cinegy.com
• Owner: Daniella Weigner 
• President & CTO: Jan Weigne
• Revenue: ~8.2M / 43 employees
• Specialties: Cinegy’s Application Areas: Media workflow, Media Asset Management, Broadcast Automation, Newsroom Integration, Nonlinear Editing, Compositing & Effects, and MPEG Technology / Encoders/Decoders
• Summary: Cinegy develops innovative video, broadcast and production software solutions, encompassing every aspect of a collaborative workflow including IP Tools, ingest, editing to playout, all connected to an active archive with full Digital Asset Management.

Support Partners

• Industry: Information Technology & Services
• Headquarters: London, UK
• Website: http://www.support-partners.com
• CEO: Harry Grinling
• COO: Peter Willis
• Revenue: Not found / 30 employees
• Specialties: Video, Consultants, Workflow, Support, Editing, Premiere, FCP, AWS, Azure, Analytics, Media, Storage, Post Production, Transcoding, cameras, Premiere Pro, LTO, LTO-8, Ingest, Broadcast, Final Cut Pro, FCPX, XSAN, Mac, Windows, SSD , ProRes, Linux, Branded Content, Video Editing, News, Innovation, Archive, In house, Collaboration, Technology Strategy, Cloud, SAN, NAS, Networking, Cisco Meraki, AVID, Post House, Post production solution, Blackmagic Davinci Resolve, Media Asset Management, After Effects, GFX, RED, UHD, HDR, shared storage, archiving, backup, VFX, disaster recovery, video support, synology, Quantum StorNext, consultancy, reseller, MAM, DAM, tagging, metadata, rendering, media, file sharing, signiant, aspera, reversioning, UX, remote support, Systems Integrators, Managed Services, Google Cloud, iMac Pro, Mac Pro, Promise, reversions, codecs, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, BBC, McCann Erickson, IPG, News UK, Financial Times, BBC Worldwide, BBC Studios, London Live, Evening Standard, and The Edge Picture Company
• Summary: Support Partners are the leading independent video technology consultants in London, New York and Bristol.

Wowza Media Systems

• Industry: Computer Software
• Headquarters: Golden, CO
• Website: http://www.wowza.com
• CEO: David Stubenvoll
• CTO: Charlie Good
• Revenue: ~27.5M
• Specialties: Media server software, Streaming media delivery, Live mobile broadcasting, Video streaming, Online video, Video player, Software, Professional Services, Live Streaming Solutions, Live streaming, and Streaming Media
• Summary: Wowza Media Systems™ is the recognized gold standard of streaming, with more than a decade of experience working with 35,000+ organizations, in 170+ countries. 

Live Arena

• Industry: Information Technology & Services
• Headquarters: Stockholm, Stockholm
• Website: http://www.livearena.com
• COO: Pontus Eklof
• CTO: Andreas Bjorkman
• Revenue: not found /17 employees
• Specialties: linear TV, livestreaming, ondemand, Microsoft Azure, media, TV, and Azure Media Services
• Summary: We enables anyone to have their own TV-Channel.

Verizon Media Platform

• Industry: Information Technology & Services
• Headquarters: Los Angeles, CA
• Website: https://www.verizondigitalmedia.com/
• CMO: Mary Kay Evans
• COO: Peter Gallagher 
• Revenue: Not found / 684 employees
• Specialties: Site acceleration, cloud services, CDN, content delivery network, Digital Media, Streaming, Encoding, Online Video, and Online Video Streaming
• Summary: Turning any digital content into instantly gratifying experiences, on every screen.

Bitmovin

• Industry: Information Technology & Services
• Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
• Website: http://www.bitmovin.com/
• CEO: Stefan Leaderer
• CIO: Christian Timmerer
• CTO: Christopher Mueller
• Revenue: ~10M / 136
• Specialties: HTTP Streaming, Adaptive Streaming Clients, Multimedia Applications, Multimedia Consulting, Transcoding, MPEG-DASH, Cloud Encoding Service, Adaptive HTML5 Video Player, VR, AV1, VP9, HTML5 player, HEVC, Docker, Kubernetes, and Video Analytics
• Summary: Bitmovin has been a first mover in almost every significant development in online video, from building and deploying the world’s first (and fastest) commercial adaptive streaming (MPEG-DASH/HLS) HTML5 Player, to being the first to achieve 100x realtime encoding speeds in the cloud. Bitmovin provides HEVC as well as VP9 live streaming with 60FPS and 4K resolution, and built the first containerized video encoding solution with Docker and Kubernetes.

Paywizard

• Industry: Broadcast Media
• Headquarters: Kirkcaldy, Fife
• Website: http://www.paywizard.com
• CEO: Bhavesh Vaghela
• COO: Debbie Leishman
• Revenue: 5M / 91 employees
• Specialties: SaaS platform
• Summary: Pay-TV operators around the world are growing their traditional and multiscreen TV businesses by partnering with Paywizard. 

In all, Microsoft shows as a great legacy player with a strong vendor list, but one not entirely targeted at the specific needs of the Media & Entertainment demographic. Like AWS they seem to be focused on ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) rather than consulting partners.