Profiled: JIBE INC.
www.jibeinc.com
CEO: Neal Ater
Number of Employees: 17
Founded: 2000
Up until now, Blockbuster had little to worry about when it came to competition from Internet-based video on demand. For customers without benefit of broadband, it could take hours to download one movie to a computer for viewing. But, out of left field came Jibe Inc., a Tampa, Florida-based company that offers a solution that can speed the process up by 30 times. And, better yet, a user can watch video while downloading it. To characterize how fast this solution is, company president Greg Schmitzer says an hour long television program, about 250MB, can be downloaded in about four minutes using the Jibe solution.
"Our mission is to enable cost-effective delivery of content via the Internet. What people currently have the most problems with is video content because the files are so big. All of the benefits from the technology we developed are amplified when you are talking about big files," says Schmitzer.Jibe develops peer-based Content Delivery Networks [CDNs]. Its EdgeBurst Delivery System 1.0, released last October, enables companies to leverage peer-based resources within their organization, throughout enterprise, or in the consumer space to deliver large file-sized content. Jibe's EdgeBurst Delivery System uses current standards and is compatible with existing media players including RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, and QuickTime.
Bursting with Possibility
What will probably satisfy users most about the EdgeBurst Delivery System is that by using Jibe's technology, they can start playing a downloaded video almost immediately upon beginning the download process. "It's what consumers envisioned when they thought about getting video via the Internet," Schmitzer says. "You are basically watching the video as it is being downloaded. What's great about that user experience versus a streaming experience is that you're watching something that is sitting on your hard drive, not something that's on a hard drive across the Internet."
In the entertainment space, the EdgeBurst system is not limited to movies. It can also be employed for Web sites and portals, where files may also be quite large. Schmitzer says, "We've been talking to gaming companies that are uploading 10 terabytes a month easily from their servers and they've got a backlog of people waiting to download new updates."
When using EdgeBurst, Schmitzer boasts download speeds of as much as two-megabytes-a-second across a Web connection. That could mean full-screen, high- quality video instead of the poor-quality and miniscule image size currently offered by streaming, according to Schmitzer. How is this accomplished? The software allows downloads from not only the closest sources, but also multiple sources in parallel. This "Parallel Progressive Download" can save a company up to 90 percent, according to Schmitzer. "Some companies can offer the parallel download from multiple configurative servers. We're talking about parallel progressive downloads for other desktops."
Video At Work
The EdgeBurst Delivery System also has applications for the enterprise space. For example, a news network may have video it wants to make available for viewing on its Web site that they want to be easily (and quickly) accessed by visitors. If they have chosen EdgeBurst, users would click the download icon for a video. There would be a quick detection to see if that consumer has Edgeburst and, if they don't, they'd be prompted to download it. If they are EdgeBurst-enabled, the program will display all available sources of content.
Employee training provides another possible application for Jibe's solution. Currently, there is no cost-effective way to distribute training materials, including manuals and video content, to dispersed employees. Many employers ship out DVDs, VHS tapes, and CD-ROMs to remote employees and to other business locations. Streaming video can be prohibitive because of encoding costs and the ultimately risky prospect of delivering it to the bandwidth-deprived. Jibe, on the other hand, allows an enterprise to take advantage of unused storage space and bandwidth on existing workstations to deliver high-quality video-on- demand to end-users at reportedly significant reductions in hardware and networking costs. A lot of interest in EdgeBurst is also being generated from content aggregators, according to Schmitzer. "They want to be able to offer varied content online and make money doing that. And, for people who have specialized content, here are specialized solutions that make sense for them, too."
Protecting the content itself is another part of the EdgeBurst Delivery System hybrid solution, which is made up of both peer-based and centralized components. The central server component has security controls and Jibe provides a "layer of security" consisting of authentication, encryption, and content verification. All content is secured using Secure Sockets Layer encryption (SSL). These security techniques complement the clients' digital rights manage- ment choice, the company says.
The EdgeBurst Delivery System is a deployable software solution licensed on a per seat or site license basis. For a limited time, qualified customers are eligible for "QuickStart" pricing starting at $50,000 for up to 5K users/subscribers. Hardware solutions for content delivery, especially for streaming and software distribution, require the purchase of dedicated servers and caching devices that need to be installed and maintained However, the Jibe EdgeBurst Delivery System requires no additional hardware and leverages existing infrastructure. Additionally, when one needs to scale a hardware-based solution, she would be required to purchase more hardware. Thus, as the content becomes more popular, costs rise drastically. With the EdgeBurst Delivery System, the more popular the content is, the more distributed that content becomes across the network. Using a peer-based system allows the content to be "micro-cached" across end-user PCs , which provides a closer location for a requesting user, limiting hits to the originating server.
In the entertainment field, content providers have generally opted to use a content delivery service, like an Akamai or Speedera. These companies have invested in hardware and infrastructure to support media delivery and charge their customers monthly service fees based on bandwidth usage, which can also be very costly.
Who's Behind Jibe?
Jibe is a privately-held corporation backed by Lovett Miller & Co. Incorporated and a group of investors. The Jibe approach to peer-to-peer-based content delivery was the brainchild of Schmitzer and Ken Marlewski. Schmitzer was involved early on with Intel's peer-to peer working group. He also served as vice president of business development for Mediacentric Group, a technology consulting and development company. In November 2000, Marlewski, now Jibe's vice president for product development, and Schmitzer convinced Lovett Miller to offer Jibe venture capital. Lovett's Scott Miller now serves on Jibe's board.
Neal Ater came on board as CEO this past summer. With more than 25 years of technology experience, most recently as a senior executive at Veritas, Ater offers the experience of two successful startup companies: Goal System International (now owned by Computer Associates) and OnDemand Software (now owned by Seagate, which merged with Veritas).
"Analysts predict content delivery services for streaming media will grow to a $6 billion market in the next few years," says Ater. "I am excited to be working with a strong team at Jibe; our peer-based content delivery solution is the right technology at the right time."
While Jibe could not disclose specific customer names as yet, Schmitzer says that within the next few months, the company will make a customer announcement about a "major entertainment company."