An offer for people needing video hosting on the web

[Kevin King]

Not sure what forum this belongs in, but I was hoping for some feedback.

I operate several high end servers for a mission critical redundant database application I am charged with. Problem is, bandwidth and actual disk space is hardly used. I have over 500GB of bandwidth and about 80 GB of drive space right now - times TWO machines... and it's all going to waste.

I know all about "web hosting" providers which are hit and miss, but these servers are on major POP points with 8 major backbones. Basically the perfect place to base streaming video from.

I see clips of people's latest streaming video segments all the time, but don't know where they're being served from.

I was considering putting together a structure using a simple math equation consisting of video file drive size, and expected number of views during the month. Then I could host the clip for them for the given price - they would have good, reliable, high speed delivery of the clip.

Most bands are tight on $$. They cut their video, or club shoot, then drop it on their ISP provided web space for about a day until the provider cuts them off because 15 people just downloaded the file and dried up all the bandwidth.

I wouldn't be interested in hosting the actual web content, just a simple way to dump a file for a given amount per month. I took a guess, and I found a site where a small band put out a 30MB music video and streamed it 150 times (according to their count). I would be able to provide this streaming space (at high speed) for about $15 a month or so.

I can put a lot more details together... but is this something people would find helpfull? I've built my life building and running enterprise data center class servers under extreme loads, and I think I'm in an idea position to offer this situation to budding videographers who need a place to dish out their work form - getting all the benifits of a high end dedicated server, without the need to learn it all, plus purchase the server (big$$$) just to get a 2 minute video out there.

At $15, you can't burn 5 demo copies on DVD for that price.

What do you think? Or am I late and this is already a huge craze?

Thanks.

[Rob Lohman]

I've moved this to a more approriate forum...