Technology Scouting Project: Video content in the cloud by linking MediaMosa installations

This exploratory study examines the possibilities of linking various MediaMosa installations. MediaMosa facilitates end user services (such as SURFmedia) by providing access to videos and the ability to use these, and provides storage, transcoding and streaming services. Using the Open API, as investigated in the exploratory study into the technology of ‘Open Web services’, MediaMosa will be able to facilitate the use of videos to end users as well. A MediaMosa link should make it possible to access videos from multiple MediaMosa installations through a single interface. In this explorative study a collection of MediaMosa installations is regarded as a cloud application, called a MediaMosa cluster. There are two ways to create a MediaMosa cluster. The first is to create a link with a new mashup application that provides access to multiple MediaMosa installations. Another option would be to create a link between multiple MediaMosa installations at API level. However, it should be noted that both links require a working open API, as proposed in the investigation into ‘Open Web services’. The mashup application makes use of the open API, which is expanded with cluster functionality for the open API link.

1. The mashup cluster is a separate application that uses MediaMosa installations already known to it in which to search. A query to this cluster is translated into a query to the open APIs of MediaMosa installations that were recorded in the local settings. All results will be aggregated into one list.
    
2. The open API cluster is an extension of the open API with a cluster call, which achieves the MediaMosa link. A query to the open API cluster results in a query to all open APIs linked to that cluster. All results will be integrated into one results list.

The second option, creating a cluster with the open API, is more flexible and can be more broadly deployed. The advantage to this option is that the open API is accessible to both end users and end user applications. Setting up a cluster management tool in addition to this open API, where MediaMosa installations can log on and off, allows MediaMosa clusters to be very dynamic. The advantage to this is that settings with more than one MediaMosa installation will be able to make their own cluster.