Verizon Digital Media Services (VDMS) is building a video streaming platform for broadcasters, content owners or streaming services within Microsoft Azure.
The company said it will offer the full implementation of VDMS’ streaming product on Azure along with Azure services. Azure customers already have access to Verizon’s Edgecast content delivery network, and now they can access VDMS running natively on Azure.
“Verizon Digital Media Services, powered by Azure, the fastest growing cloud service provider, is the ultimate streaming solution to address the growing demand for video content online,” said Ralf Jacob, president of VDMS, in a statement. “Paired with Azure’s global scale we can now deliver high performing, simplified video workflows to content creators anywhere. Our partnership will create new opportunities for Verizon, Microsoft and our joint customers to shape the future of media.”
Verizon will also work with Microsoft to integrate Azure Media Services, Microsoft AI and Microsoft machine learning technology.
“Cloud, edge and AI technologies will play a fundamental role in the future of video content delivery and workflows,” said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the cloud and AI Group at Microsoft, in a statement. “Our work with Verizon will give our mutual customers unparalleled access to one of the world’s leading streaming products, with pre-integrated AI for actionable insights by key business stakeholders.”
RELATED: Akamai integrates CDN with Microsoft Azure media services
The Azure agreement delivers on a promise of some tighter partner integration VDMS pursued earlier this week when it announced it was adding 4K encoding, multi-CDN and other new capabilities to its platform.
The deal between VDMS and Microsoft comes the same week that VDMS CDN competitor Akamai signed an integration deal with Azure.
Akamai will now directly connect its edge network to Azure using an Azure ExpressRoute connection to enable efficiencies when storing and delivering content. The companies said the integration also should help provide mutual customers with lower, more predictable cost structures.
“Our customers are expanding their libraries and delivering more content to larger audiences at higher levels of quality than ever before. Many of them are asking for help to simplify how they manage and deliver video, scale their services and move their workflow functions to the cloud,” said Akamai CEO Dr. Tom Leighton in a statement. “By combining the power of Microsoft Azure, Azure Media Services and Azure Storage with the vast reach of Akamai’s Edge we will create an environment that mitigates cost while maximizing performance and scale for content providers.”