This week, Vidyo announced a new cloud delivery solution for embedded video, Vidyo.io. The new video solution is based on all the core capabilities of the routed Vidyo core for delivering high quality video over the inconsistent networking in the Internet. The new Vidyo solution is based on the work the company has been doing in enabling premise based embedded video solutions extended to a Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) delivery model.
Vidyo.io is specifically focused on the emerging CPaaS 2.0 market, where the solution delivers communications embedded in the application and uses the Internet instead of the Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN) integration of a CPaaS 1.0 solution like Twilio. In a CPaaS 1.0 solution, the application drives voice and SMS across the PSTN, typically through the traditional phone user experience. In CPaaS 2.0, the communications, generally video and voice, are embedded directly into the application user experience and are transported over the modern IP based Internet.
In delivering this new solution, Vidyo has extended and enhanced its solution in three key areas: a new SDK optimized to the new software development environments and application languages, an enhanced robust global network and server infrastructure, and a new pay-as-you go consumption based pricing and business model.
The new Vidyo.io SDK negates the need for on-premises hosting or deep technical knowledge of video coding. Vidyo.io provides SDKs for Web browsers (WebRTC and plugin), iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows, with a consistent API that reduces development time and cost. The Vidyo.io allows for any combination of video participants, from simple two-person video chat to a multi-party conference. The video experience is embedded directly into the application, assuring both a better user experience as well as contextual integration with the rest of the application.
The Vidyo.io solution is being deployed in the cloud infrastructure that has been developed to deliver cloud based user licensed video conferencing. As part of the deployment, Vidyo is both expanding the overall deployment in capacity and location to optimize the experience. The routed design of the video solution optimizes both latency and bandwidth optimization or distributed multi-party video experiences.
A key part of Vidyo.io is the consumption based pricing and business models that Vidyo is introducing. These models have proven very desirable to applications developers in the CPaaS 1.0 space, as they allow the deployment of new capabilities into an application with minimal upfront cost and no specific volume commitment. Developers/new users receive 4,000 free minutes (100,000 with a limited time offer announced with the new solution). No credit card is required for initial sign-up, creating a very low-risk development environment that easily allows developers to quickly move from ideation through development phases to an actual delivery to the market. As cost scales with demand, the risk of large up-front purchases is dramatically increased. This has been a major factor in the explosive growth of CPaaS 1.0.
Eran Westman, Vidyo CEO, said about the new solution, “Today’s market is driven by an ‘anytime, any location, any device’ mentality, Vidyo.io is the only API platform available today that provides the mission-critical quality and reliability the enterprise increasingly requires for superior performance when video participants are connected over unmanaged, variable network connections such as wireless and public Internet. Our mission is to better visually-connect the world - using Vidyo.io, developers can ensure a consistent user experience by embedding high-quality, reliable, resilient multi-party video into any application. We are thrilled to announce the general availability of Vidyo.io, and invite developers to experience the platform firsthand.”
The CPaaS 2.0 market is emerging as the next big area of communications transformation. At the Cisco launch event this week, Cisco talked about having a CPaaS 2.0 capability as an extension of the Spark platform, indicating that the CPaaS 2.0 market is beginning to emerge. The CPaaS 2.0 market has already seen new company entrants like Temasys and Kandy by GENBAND; however, Vidyo is the first large scale traditional video conferencing vendor to move aggressively in this space, echoing its focus on the embedded market over the last few years.
The Vidyo announcement is a clear indication of the emergence of CPaaS 2.0 market and the migration of communications from separate stand-alone experiences with phone/SMS/PSTN integration into communications directly integrated into the applications user experience. For a wide range of applications from healthcare, customer care, financial management and more, embedding real time video and voice directly into the application is transforming both the user experience as well as the technology landscape. Over the last three years, I have talked about how more and more of our communications are not through the traditional phone/SMS/PSTN, but through direct applications integration. With the emergence of CPaaS 2.0, that transformation is accelerating. From the telecom group to the marketing group, organizations need to understand how CPaaS 2.0 will impact both markets and experiences. With more and more communications being outside of the traditional PSTN/SMS environment, understanding how to deliver and manage these is critical.
Edited by
Alicia Young
