Photos courtesy Omnivex
By Doug Bannister
When planning a digital signage deployment, today’s system planners are faced with the increasingly difficult decision of whether or not to host the network on-site. With the growing trend of moving data to the ‘cloud,’ the concept of Software as a Service (SaaS) has been gaining traction as a basis for digital signage platforms. It is also important, however, to consider the nature of the client’s business and the degree of control necessary for that business’ data.
By understanding the fundamentals of both cloud computing and on-premise hosting models, digital signage system providers can determine which is a better fit for each client’s needs.
The sky’s the limit
The term ‘cloud computing’ has been used to describe a wide variety of services that provide remote, scalable information technology (IT) resources by means of the Internet, rather than residing on a local computer or network. This online arrangement can provide substantial benefits in terms of reduced capital costs, simplified software installation and fewer maintenance requirements for the client.
Indeed, instead of installing software at all, users can simply bundle online services together and pay a daily, weekly or monthly fee to farm them out for management by a third party. This not only means lower upfront costs, but also allows the system to grow more steadily, as users can easily extend the tools needed to run the network.
It is also important to note they are not limited to a single type of cloud computing infrastructure. Moving to the cloud does not necessarily mean using SaaS, for example, which is only one of many options in the cloud. Others include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) models, which vary in terms of how they are managed.
In the case of a SaaS model, software applications are owned and managed by a third-party service provider and accessed online by customers. This allows the users to run their networks with minimal need for software installations or hardware purchases. It also offers easier collaboration among users, with global accessibility.
There are different models for managing a large-scale digital signage network, depending on the client’s needs.
In the case of IaaS, the entire IT server infrastructure—including hardware, storage devices, servers and other workings—is fully outsourced to the external vendor. Essentially, this means customers load applications they own on servers they rent. With the digital signage sector, however, the media players—and possibly their software—are the responsibility of the user in most of these scenarios.
Finally, with PaaS, users handle their own data and software applications, but then pay a third-party service provider to manage the operating systems (OSs), server hardware, storage and other platform-related resources over the Internet. This option allows customers to reduce their overall expenditures by consolidating the majority of their IT services with one vender.
There are also three types of cloud-based deployment models with regard to breadth of access, including public, community and private clouds.
A public cloud involves a third party providing common resources—such as software or data storage—to many clients, allowing the cost to be spread over a large number of users. This arrangement has the potential for significant savings.
