Citrix CloudBridge and Qumu partner to bring better enterprise video to businesses
Citrix announced the CSX ecosystem of their Citrix CloudBridge family today. The CSX ecosystem is the next step in "building a strategic networking solution that securely, efficiently and effectively connects the branch to the enterprise cloud network." Qumu has partnered with Citrix to leverage the power of enterprise video through the CSX ecosystem.
Increasingly, businesses are using cloud-based architectures and third-party providers to host a wide range of data in the cloud. While this solution is cost effective and highly scalable, it presents problems when businesses need to deliver large files, such as video, companywide, especially when offices are distributed around the country or the globe.
With Qumu's Citrix-ready, verified VideoNet Edge solution, companies will be able to provide a stellar live and on-demand streaming video experience to all employees by centralizing provisioning and positioning of video and related content. By leveraging the Cloudbridge CSX ecosystem, businesses can minimize bandwidth usage on the corporate WAN and optimize their networks for video delivery.
Qumu and Citrix, a partnership that brings video to your communications infrastructure. Learn more about the Qumu and Citrix solution here.
Read more on the subject on the Citrix blog.
Fuhgeddaboudit....and other notes on compelling communications
I live in Brooklyn, NY, and like all savvy New Yorkers, I know that whenever I need to drive out of the city headed west, the fastest way out of town will be to avoid Manhattan traffic by crossing the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. If you don’t know this bridge by name, you might recognize it if you saw it: It is famous for being the longest suspension bridge in the Americas, it is the starting line for the NYC marathon and it was featured prominently in the movie Saturday Night Fever.
A few years ago, the Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz, decided to add a highway sign on the Expressway approaching the bridge that says “Leaving Brooklyn? Fuhgeddaboudit”
I get a chuckle whenever I see the sign, but of course, not everyone who sees it feels the same way I do. When it was first posted, there were debates in the local papers about whether this sign was a good use of taxpayer dollars, or whether it emphasized negative stereotypes of Brooklyn accents, or whether the word Fuhgeddaboudit was even spelled right (doesn’t it have four “D’s”?)?
My take on this sign is that it is a master stroke of marketing and visual communication and it has a lesson that all of us who enable enterprise communications can learn from.
The fact is that the sign that immediately follows this one, which was put up by the MTA, strikes a very different tone. The next sign indicates that the Verrazano toll plaza is coming up, and the cost for a single passenger vehicle to cross is now $13.00.
Ouch.
Let’s net it out: The Verrazano is the most expensive toll bridge in the United States.
The lesson for communicators is simple: Use a sign – or a joke – or whatever you can – to be the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.
If you are looking for more ideas on how to build compelling messaging, I suggest you check out Mark Ragan’s excellent website. Mark is both a Qumu customer and a Qumu partner, but he is also an all-around communications savant, and his site is an excellent resource for communications professionals. On this topic of video communication, watch this video “The No. 1 secret to a great presentation.”
Which came first, the content or the network?
The telegraph was 150 years old yesterday. Reading about this Victorian Internet, one can see that the process of launching a new communication technology hasn't changed much since the Civil War.
"Build it and they will come" didn't fly then any more than it does now. Samuel Morse had to create a new language - Morse Code - in order to make telegraphy viable as a communication tool. The technology was worthless without content.
It was the value of the content that created the value of the telegraph network. And the telegraph created an appetite for more content served up even faster, which I suspect gave radio a leg up in its formative years.
In fact, history includes a continuous chain of new communication technologies, each dependent on the promise of more content, and each accelerating the amount of content that gets created - creating the need for an even larger and faster pipe:
- The printing press
- The telegraph
- Telephony
- Radio
- Motion pictures
- Television
- Cable television
- Mobile telephony
- The internet
- Wifi
Today, video is at the bleeding edge of content. Existing networks - the internet, telecom and corporate infrastructures - are struggling to keep up with its volume and unique characteristics. It's driving more change to communication technologies.
Rimage's acquisition of Qumu puts us in the middle of this new transition to a truly video-capable infrastructure. We're excited to be on the front lines of the battle between content and the network.
I wonder what comes after video?
