5 Things To Look For When Choosing A Media Streaming Server

Looking for a streaming server for your website? The internet is loaded with hundreds if not thousands of sites that provide streaming services. But most of them are painfully slow and unreliable. And to be honest, they’re not worth your dime.

You see, streaming high quality videos in HD and 4K is highly dependent on strong and fast servers that can seamlessly enable high-quality streaming. That’s why you cannot compromise when selecting a good streaming server for your website.

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If you’re having trouble finding a suitable one, follow the tips below.

1. Confirm The Site Has A Backup Policy

One of the must-haves for streaming server hosting companies is backup. It provides a go-to for client’s websites after harsh attacks from internal and external elements such as viruses, hackers and ransomware. Having a backup ensures your site is protected. If the site is attacked and there’s no backup, you are likely to suffer huge losses. It could even keep your site down for a long time and force you to start from scratch – a waste of time and energy.

As you can see, confirming that your provider has a backup plan when disaster strikes can be the difference between the life and death of your website.

2. Consider The Bandwidth

There are two kinds of bandwidths; metered and unmetered bandwidth.

In unmetered, there’s no limitation in terms of bandwidth capacity. It allows you to send unlimited data to and from the server over the networks. There’s no limitation on how much data you can transfer, making it suitable for sites that offer high-quality live-streaming services or Video on Demand services.

One advantage of the metered bandwidth is its pocket-friendliness compared to its unmetered counterpart. Choose this option only if you’re sure that your website’s data will not exceed the fixed bandwidth.

3. Storage Services

As you all know, videos can take up a huge space compared to texts and images. The sites should have the capacity to handle high-quality and huge-sized videos.

In addition, you should inquire whether your provider offers storage in an SSD or hard drive. Both have different advantages. SSD tends to be faster than traditional hard drives. But since SSD technology is relatively new, it’s much more expensive.

Hard drives, on the other hand, are much cheaper. It makes them suitable if you’re working on a budget. Not to say that their speed is poor, but its speed is less compared to an SSD.

4. Experience and Customer Care

Nobody wants a provider with poor customer support services. A provider with 24/7 support is an added advantage, especially when technical difficulties arise. They always do, so it’s a crucial factor that you shouldn’t overlook.

Some of the areas that the provider can help you with are:

  • Ensuring that the bandwidth is consistent
  • Taking care of some account limitations
  • Ensuring regular updates, maintenance and configurations to keep your site running

5. Site Location

What many website owners don’t realize is that server location impacts streaming quality. The quality and speed depend on the latency factor – how far the streamer is from the server. The further away, the lesser the quality. With that said, go for a host with many data centers around the world or closer to website visitors. It ensures users can easily access content wherever they are.

Conclusion

A large bandwidth is an indicator of a reliable server. Confirming the host has other network options available guarantees your safety when the main network suffers damage.

When looking for a good host, you must consider bandwidth size, location of data centers, customer service and other factors.

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