Technical Architecture Assessment

SITUATION

These days, downloading and streaming video uses more bandwidth than anything else on the Internet.  To meet this demand, media companies are working to make more and more of their media libraries available through online channels; however, even in the same company, different brands may have different strategies—and different technical requirements—for their media presentation tools.  Very large media creation companies, like Disney, often have many divisions with the same underlying goal and a wide variety of front-end options. 

At Disney, two internal divisions that were using the same media infrastructure had specialized their platforms and inadvertently created two divergent code branches.  If the divisions continued to work independently, they would eventually have two completely different systems that required more development and maintenance than a single, unified platform.   Disney wanted to allow the teams to make unique strategic choices.  However, they also wanted both divisions to operate from the same platform. 

SOLUTION

Disney asked Digital Foundry to provide specifications for a single platform that would unite the divergent code paths while permitting each division to retain the specializations that supported their unique media presentation goals.  Digital Foundry worked with Disney’s development managers to investigate all of the ramifications of these changes as well as the opportunities that might arise during the refactoring project. 

In order to address all of Disney’s concerns—which ranged from the purely technical to cross-division cooperation and communication—Digital Foundry put together a series of assessments that included a unified architectural model, development best practices, automated deployment recommendations, and team structure and staffing guidelines. 

RESULTS

Through close collaboration with Disney project managers, Digital Foundry was able to:

• Investigate two media websites that had drifted into divergent code paths and propose a unification strategy.
• Propose a new development team structure that could manage core development and customizations for each site. 
• Outline development and deployment best practices so that the Disney team can operate as efficiently as possible.