By Brian Boyko
Editor, Network Performance Daily

Slashdot recently linked to an article from MacWorld showing that the amount of time that people spend watching online video has steadily increased. (In other news, water is wet…) Google's YouTube and Google Video served up over a quarter of all internet videos.

I think we can assume that a fair percentage of them were watched from corporate networks. Not just because of recreational use but because video is a very compelling medium that can convey work-related information, sometimes more quickly and more accurately than text alone.

For example, our Whiteboard Series was created with the expectation that people would watch our videos on WAN Optimization and VoIP from work, where they would find the information most useful.

One really can't just block YouTube, or Veoh, or Yahoo Video and expect blocking it to solve the problem of tying up vital bandwidth, because video is increasing not just as a 'bandwidth hazard' but as a method of communication. And it's only going to get more bandwidth heavy - and more useful - as MPEG4+ACC "Moviestar" Flash Video, or WMV using Microsoft's Silverlight increase the quality of online streaming video.

Don't think there won't be content producers - like us - taking advantage of this as well. High definition full-fledged video cameras cost less than $1000 these days. A flash-video "YouTube camera" can record 720p HD for less than $200.

The way to prepare for this is to have good QoS policies in place, so that the day-to-day business data transactions aren't interrupted or slowed when people access online streaming video - which is quickly becoming a necessity.

One big thing that complicates this is hard shut-off date for the end of all analog TV transmissions in the U.S. on February 17, 2009. It is possible to use a converter box to use an older TV with the ATSC standard - but most people will probably get a high definition television instead. High-definition television will prompt high-definition content. That includes home movies.

Right now, High Definition home video cameras are sold to computer geeks, early adopters, and indie filmmakers. They will be more widely adopted when most families have a high definition TV set and want to play back home movies. And as many YouTube videos are harvested from the ranks of home movies, it is possible to then imply that there will be demand for a high definition video hosting service.

That's going to mean more bandwidth usage. QoS policies become crucial.