The streaming industry is undergoing a significant transformation, particularly in Europe, where data sovereignty has become a critical concern for media companies. In this enlightening conversation, Stef van der Ziel, CEO of Jet-Stream, shares how his company has adapted to these changing demands by developing both sovereign cloud services and innovative on-premises solutions.
Stef takes us through the evolution of Jet-Stream from its early days in 1994 to its current position as a provider of European sovereign cloud services and on-premises video processing systems. What's particularly fascinating is how European regulations around data privacy have created new opportunities - requiring not just European hosting, but complete European ownership and operation with no connections to entities outside the region.
The discussion reveals a surprising industry trend: after years of migration to public cloud platforms, many organizations are returning to on-premises infrastructure due to unsustainable cloud costs. "The promise of the cloud was that your internal IT operation cost would go down by half," Stef notes, "and that's not true." This economic reality has driven Jet-Stream to develop MaelStrom, an innovative "micro cloud" solution that brings cloud-like scalability and resilience to on-premises deployments.
The technical implementation details are impressive - using NETINT VPU acceleration cards in ARM-based servers, a single 500-watt machine can process up to 30 full HD channels simultaneously with complete ABR ladders. This represents a 90% reduction in energy consumption compared to traditional approaches. All while maintaining high availability through containerized processing that automatically redistributes workloads if hardware fails.
Whether you're managing streaming infrastructure, concerned about data sovereignty, or looking to optimize your video processing costs, this episode offers valuable insights into how the industry is evolving to meet these challenges. Jet-Stream's approach demonstrates that with the right architecture, organizations can achieve the best of both worlds - cloud-like flexibility with the economics and control of on-premises infrastructure.
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