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I have a unique project where I'm needing host several terabytes of short ~15mb mp4 video files, of which each video will only be viewed once.

Is a CDN recommended here? Or would a basic storage solution like AWS S3, or DigitalOcean's Block Storage solution work well for me needs?

Thank you

user1661677
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  • Viewed how? Do you need a streaming protocol or just file delivery? – Tim Sep 24 '16 at 01:57
  • I'm *really* curious about the use case here. Heh. – ceejayoz Sep 24 '16 at 01:58
  • Hi @Tim, we will be serving these videos on dynamically created php pages via HTML5. – user1661677 Sep 24 '16 at 01:59
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    That doesn't answer either of my questions. What is the client? What is the protocol? Do you need RTMP or just a file server? – Tim Sep 24 '16 at 01:59
  • I don't see why we'd need RTMP, especially for one view of a ~15mb file. What do you mean by client? – user1661677 Sep 24 '16 at 02:01
  • It could be a streaming media player on a phone. It could be within a browser. It could be downloads to watch later. – Tim Sep 24 '16 at 02:05
  • Thanks, Tim. It will be a mix of mobile devices and desktops viewing the video. – user1661677 Sep 24 '16 at 02:07
  • Can't you simply make the files available from where they are stored now? Because if the video files are going to be viewed exactly once the bandwidth requirement to just upload your existing files to any server/service is going to be the same as the viewers downloading the files directly from their current location. If a fraction of the files available will never be viewed, than uploading will cost even more time/bandwidth. What benefits are you expecting a server to offer, because I don't see any in that regard? – HBruijn Sep 24 '16 at 03:43
  • @HBruijn great point. It will likely be < 1 view per video. If I used DigitalOcean's block storage, I should be able to save the file directly there. – user1661677 Sep 24 '16 at 04:03

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Based on what we know right now I'd suggest you just use block storage. A CDN won't help much for a file viewed once. AWS S3, infrequently accessed storage class, would probably be easiest and cheap. Running a web server for this simple use case seems excessive.

Tim
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