Amazon S3 Storage - Storage Management Considerations - By: Jim C Green

In this article, we discuss the advantages of using Amazon S3, some tools that are available, and considerations in online content management. S3 (Simple Storage Service) is Amazon's own internal high performance storage system, which may be "rented" by anyone needing secure, reliable and fast hosting for their content. Surprisingly, S3 features free signup and includes several advanced security features. As of the date of this article, pricing is based on the following (prices have been dropping over time):

Storage - $0.14 per GB
Data Transfer IN - $0.10 per GB
Data Transfer OUT $0.15 per GB
Requests (Put, List, Copy) - $0.01 per 1,000
Requests (Get) - $0.01 per 10,000

2,000 10 minute videos having 30,000 views per month would cause in $4.24 for storage, $137.85 for data transfer, and $.04 for requests, resulting in a total of $142.13. Users with even significant team membership, training videos, etc. generally pay less than $100 per month. Average usage of $5 to $10 per month is more typical. There is no charge for signing up. An Amazon account must be created if necessary. Managing content can be accomplished with both free and paid tools, including CloudBerry Explorer for Amazon S3 and the S3 Organizer Toolset for Firefox.

There are different video formats used online, including MOV, MP4 and FLV. All these are h.264 encoded. SWF, a predecessor of flash videos, is not a video format. Smart phones always create MP4 (h.264) format. Both iPhone and Android are able to play MP4 files but not SWF format.

Quality and bandwidth must be balanced when publishing online. Consideration for lower bandwidth users, e.g. 768Kbps as typical DSL bandwidth should be made. 450 to 500 Kbps is therefore a good guideline for MP4 encoding. Bandwidth limits on most hosting accounts, although not advertised, can result in unannounced suspension of your account. Therefore, you should never serve videos from your hosting account for maximum throughput. This is why the top 10 products on ClickBank all host their videos on Amazon S3. Four of the ten are, however, failing to adequately provide security for their content. Although popular, YouTube doesn't optimize content for user experience, and even worse, accounts can be closed on a whim.. YouTube is not a good choice for anyone doing Internet marketing for a living.

In addition to readily available php code, WordPress plugins can greatly simplify the process of embedding videos and add significant video capabilities not easily programmed by other means. Some tools allow content to be obfuscated and links to your Amazon content to only be used once. Also, the actual Amazon S3 buckets are not obviously displayed in your source code. And, we've even seen a single domain commercial license for FlowPlayer included with tool purchase.

About the Author

Amazon S3 storage management is essential for Internet and attraction marketing businesses in order to enhance user experience, as well as to securely manage critical online business content.

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Jim-C-Green/66408

Additional Articles From - Home | Internet business | Internet marketing