The growth of multiscreen video for live and on-demand content is increasingly challenging media companies to provide a high quality viewing experience. As new consumer devices, technologies, and regulations flood the market, requirements are becoming more complex and the expanding number of file formats is driving a massive amount of video processing. For example, during the 2012 summer Olympics, data delivery reached 2.8 petabytes of content and peaked at a rate of 700Gb/s when Bradley Wiggins won the gold medal in men’s cycling.

Traditionally, media companies would simply buy more processing capacity to support this level of demand. In the case of the Olympics however, this is a two-week event occurring bi-annually. Is that level of infrastructure required when the games aren’t in session? At least the Olympics occur on a regular schedule determined well in advance. What happens when there is need for a sudden, unexpected surge in video production?