In order to provide worldwide distribution and availability of enterprise media assets, Cumulus can be enhanced with the Media Delivery Cloud option. Cataloged assets can then be provided through a Content Delivery Network (CDN) based on Amazon Web Services.
The Media Delivery Cloud caches assets into Amazon’s CloudFront CDN. Images can be managed centrally in Cumulus and delivered directly from the CDN to a variety of platforms including e-commerce, Web Content Management (WCM) systems, Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) systems, Product Information Systems and more.
All kinds of assets in Cumulus can be published to the Media Delivery Cloud – either as the “original” assets, or as so called master images for image assets, or as both. A master image is a PNG version of the original image and, in general, of smaller dimensions than the original. The size of master images can be configured via the Media Delivery Cloud configurator in the Web Server Console. Crop and resize operations can be performed to a master image, which results in different renditions of that image that will be generated on-the-fly, and cached in the CDN.
Prerequisites
Some prerequisites must be met in order to make use of the Media Delivery Cloud feature.
License
A Media Delivery Cloud license must be purchased, and activated via the Remote Admin module of the Cumulus (Web) Server Console.
Additionally, a fitting amazon S3 Customer ID (either of customer’s existing account, or obtained from Canto) and an Endpoint URL (obtained from Canto) must be entered via the Media Delivery Cloud Setup module of the Web Server Console.
Permissions
No special permissions are required for Cumulus users who want to use the Media Delivery Cloud feature.
Catalog-related Prerequisites
Media Delivery Cloud Specific Record Fields
The Cumulus Media Delivery Cloud (MDC) feature can be used only with catalogs that contain some MDC specific fields. These fields are provided in the catalog template for Media Delivery Cloud and can be added to any existing catalog.
For details on how to add fields to a catalog, see Adding Fields.
Scheduler Task
Cumulus provides a Media Delivery Cloud Scheduler action that reads the content of certain Media Delivery Cloud related record fields and performs the following tasks:
• uploading original assets to MDC Service
• generating of master images and uploading them to MDC Service
• deleting any asset or master image at MDC Service
• extending the expiration date of any asset/image, shortly before the expiration date is reached.
A Scheduler task with this scheduler action must be set up, specifying the catalogs on which the action shall be performed, and its frequency in time.
Cumulus provides a Media Delivery Cloud trigger action that can
• un-publish an asset or master image from the Media Delivery Cloud
• change the value of the Media Delivery Cloud Request field to Publish original asset, or Publish master image, or Publish original asset and master image, depending on what has been published before.
Canto recommends to setup two triggers with the Media Delivery Cloud trigger action:
• One catalog-specific trigger that is fired when a record is deleted. This trigger would initiate the deletion of the respective asset or master image from the MDC service.
• One field specific trigger that is fired when the asset modification date of an asset is modified. This trigger changes the value of the Media Delivery Cloud Request field to Upload ..., which subsequently causes the scheduler to upload the modified asset (and/or generate and upload a new master image) on its next run.