Shahid Hosts 27 Million Users After Cloud Migration with Insys on AWS

In 2019, digital streaming company Shahid hosted more than 27 million unique users on its application and website. It was able to scale to accommodate them through a cloud migration it had undertaken with support from AWS Partner Insys Video Technologies.

Shahid adopted solutions including AWS Lambda, Amazon DynamoDB, and AWS Shield. Using a new stack of AWS solutions, Shahid has increased the security of its streaming services and enhanced the efficiency of its operations. The company was able to issue 100 million licenses in less than one month just six months after its migration.

Insys is an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner and fast-developing video integration company that offers comprehensive implementation of over-the-top (OTT) projects from strategy and design to development, deployment, and maintenance. Insys is an AWS Public Sector Partner and member of the AWS Solution Provider Program.

Increasing Scalability to Meet Increased Viewership

Shahid wanted to increase the scalability of its computing infrastructure because it expected an increase in viewership leading up to Ramadan. The company also required a solution that would maintain its security protocols and prevent the redistribution of content without impacting the user experience.

After exploring solutions on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Shahid went to Insys for support during its cloud migration. On AWS, Shahid has achieved the scalability that is needed to accommodate significant spikes in traffic while enhancing its security measures to protect against distributed (DoS) attacks.

Migrating from a Third Party to the AWS Cloud

Founded in 2008, Shahid is an Arabic content streaming company owned by the MBC Group. As a subscription-based service, it streams TV programming and movies to the Middle East and North Africa, with headquarters in Dubai.

In 2019, the company received views from over 27 million unique monthly users—a 23% increase compared to the same period in 2018—and captured 85% of the video-on-demand (VOD) market within the regions it serves.

Previously, Shahid hosted its computing infrastructure with a third-party cloud provider. However, as the company’s subscription base grew, Shahid wanted to find a more scalable solution to meet an increase in demand.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, the company began collaborating with Insys, which has offered implementation of object-oriented testing solutions since 2006 and has several AWS Certified Solutions Architects, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioners, and AWS Certified Developers on staff. Because of Insys’s years of expertise building solutions on AWS, Shahid decided that Insys would be a good partner for its cloud migration.

To begin this effort Shahid and Insys migrated the company’s workloads onto AWS Lambda, a serverless, event-driven compute service that lets developers run code for virtually any type of application or backend service without provisioning or managing servers.

For storage, they deployed Amazon DynamoDB, which is a fully managed, serverless, key-value NoSQL database designed to run high-performance applications at virtually any scale. Using serverless solutions, Shahid was able to automatically scale within seconds to meet demand when traffic was at its highest.

Adopting Solutions to Increase Security

Shahid also adopted the Insys Cloud DRM, which is a fully cloud-native digital rights management licensing server for video streaming.

“It has always been vital for broadcasters to secure premium content from piracy,” says Krzysztof Bartkowski, CEO at Insys. “However, with the constant evolution of the video landscape, broadcasters are looking for new ways to optimize associated costs while having the flexibility to scale as demand changes. By basing our Insys Cloud DRM on AWS, we can provide that flexibility.”

Using the Insys Cloud DRM means that Shahid can scale to issue virtually any number of licenses per second as demand increases. The system reports how many licenses have been issued every hour.

Shahid and Insys were able to complete the implementation well ahead of Ramadan, during which Shahid saw over 100 million licenses issued over a period of one month. Shahid can also scale to meet demands on its video service and website for the future. Since implementing the Cloud DRM, it has issued tens of millions of licenses per month.

To help mitigate any malicious attacks, Shahid and Insys used AWS Shield, which is a managed distributed DoS protection service that safeguards applications running on AWS. With the support of Insys, Shahid also implemented AWS WAF, a web application firewall that helps protect web applications or APIs against common web exploits and bots that might affect availability, compromise security, or consume excessive resources.

Planning for Subscriber Growth in the Future

Since implementing the Insys Cloud DRM and AWS services, Shahid has been able to manage its service more efficiently. The company plans to continue growing its services and subscriber base in the future.

“Migrating to AWS has given us the much-needed scalability to handle peaks in viewing numbers,” says Dominic Farrell, Chief Technology Officer at Shahid. “We have peace of mind knowing that our premium content will remain secure and that we can keep track of all our content all the time.”

Benefits

• Achieved scalability to meet demand
• Issued over 100 million licenses in one month
• Captured 85% of video-on-demand (VOD) market
• Increased efficiency in service usage

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Insys Video Technologies – AWS Partner Spotlight

Insys is an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner and fast-developing video integration company that offers comprehensive implementation of over-the-top (OTT) projects from strategy and design to development, deployment, and maintenance.

Contact Insys | Partner Overview | AWS Marketplace