Netflix has transitioned its media pipeline to be fully hosted on AWS. It originally used custom data centers but faced issues with hardware failures and an inability to scale quickly enough. By moving to AWS, Netflix has been able to rapidly scale its infrastructure from a few thousand EC2 instances to over 10,000 to support new device launches and content expansions. Its current pipeline stores media in S3 and uses EC2 to perform encoding. It is working on a new massively parallel encoding system called MAPLE to reduce latency further. Netflix also sees an opportunity to partner with content owners as a digital vault, preserving original video DNA in AWS Glacier for low cost long term storage.

1. tweet #reinvent

2. Netflix Media In AWS
 Matrix : The Netflix media pipeline
 MAPLE : Next generation media pipeline
 Digital vaulting opportunity
 Concluding thoughts
2

3. Netflix Media Pipeline
Open
Connect
FTP
S3 S3
EC2 EC2 EC2
3

4. Driving To Hollywood Game
4

5. Rules of the game
 200 MPH!  85 MPH
 Purchase only  Lease, cancel anytime
 Quantities limited  Unlimited quantity
 It breaks, you fix it  It breaks, replace it, no charge
 Pay for parking  No parking, just walk away
 Obsolete in 1 year  Brand new each year
5

6. Industry heritage : optimize for latency
 Interactive editing
 Master creation
 DVD/Blu-ray authoring
 Edits for television
6

7. Netflix 2008
 Custom data center
 Custom GPU Encoders
 Fixed size
 New format needed
 PC, Mac, Xbox
 Content library doubled
 Frequent HW failures
 Fail! Catalog incomplete
7

8. Fall 2009 – Launch Netflix PS3 Player
 First 100% AWS
transcode
 New format, unique to
Netflix PS3 player
 Encode recipe nailed
down late
 3 weeks, transcode entire
catalog
8

9. Netflix 2009 to present
 US East AWS
 Variable sized EC2 farm
 S3 for storage
 Optimized for throughput, not
latency
 No more missed deadlines
 Devices, catalogs, countries
9

10. Spring 2010 – Launch Netflix IPad Player
 Launch April 10th
 Apple approached us in
mid February
 Grew EC2 farm to 4,000
instances
 Entire library transcoded
in 2 weeks
 New format ready for
launch
10

11. Netflix Media Pipeline
Open
Connect
FTP
S3 S3
EC2 EC2 EC2
11

12. For Netflix, throughput trumps latency
 Think horizontal, not vertical
 Priuses move more people than Ferraris
 Frequent re-encodes of growing libraries
 Netflix is nimble because of AWS
12

13. More proof that horizontal wins
 New countries, new content
 Codec innovation
13

14. AWS handles Netflix scale
 5 regional catalogs
 4 formats supported today
 1 VC-1, 3 H.264
 Multiple bit rates per format
 10’s of 1000’s of hours of content
 Several petabytes of S3 storage
14

15. Netflix Media In AWS
 Matrix : The Netflix media pipeline
 MAPLE : Next generation media pipeline
 Digital vaulting opportunity
 Concluding thoughts
15

16. Next Generation : Address faults and latency
 2 to 3 day HD transcode
 Fault intolerant
 Maintenance is challenging
80 – 100 Mbps
 2 to 3 days is sometimes too
EC2: C1 Medium slow
4 Mbps  Day after broadcast
 Redelivery of damaged content
S3 16

17. MAPLE : Massively Parallel Encoding
 5 minute chunks
 Close to ‘real time’
 Fault tolerant
 Easy maintenance
EC2  Address low latency use cases
 Day after broadcast
 Redelivery of damaged content
S3  In development now 17

18. Netflix Media In AWS
 Matrix : The Netflix media pipeline
 MAPLE : Next generation media pipeline
 Digital vaulting opportunity
 Concluding thoughts
18

19. Versionitis Problem In Hollywood
 Dr. Zhivago
 1965
 Cinematography Oscar
19

20. Dr. Zhivago On Netflix Streaming
2.20 : 1 Original Aspect Ratio
4:3 Television Aspect Ratio
20

21. Original Video DNA
 Original production master
 Native frame rate
 Native aspect ratio
 Whatever came out of the
production cameras
21

22. DNA Based Digital Vault
English English
Mandarin
Spanish
22

23. Opportunity for content owners
 On time delivery
 Low error rates
 More $$ licensing
opportunities
 October 15 Nordic launch
23

24. AWS Glacier For Digital Vault Storage
 Glacier
 $.01 per GB per month
 Bitrate 80 Mbps
 1 hour = 35GB
 $0.35 per hour per month
 $4.22 per hour per year
24

25. Netflix Media In AWS
 Matrix : The Netflix media pipeline
 MAPLE : Next generation media pipeline
 Digital vaulting opportunity
 Concluding thoughts
25

26. We would do it all over again
 Don’t be fooled by IT cost
comparisons
 We don’t administer the gear
 6,000 EC2 instances
 Petabytes of storage
 High network traffic
 Storage is durable
 It is a moving target
 You cannot put a price on nimble
26

27. • Wed (1:00PM-1:50PM) MED203: Scalable Media Processing with AWS
• kmcentee@netflix.com
• Later today at the Netflix booth
27

28. We are sincerely eager to tweet #reinvent
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