“Running our applications on Windows 8 devices using Windows Azure means that our users have access to Xpreshon content wherever they are.“

Jason Webb, Director and Co-Founder, Xpreshon

Xpreshon is a two-person company that delivers free and subscription-based action sports content to users on Microsoft Xbox, Windows 8, and Windows Phone devices. As a small startup, the company needed to focus its resources on content innovation and balked at the cost of an on-premises IT solution to support its business vision. Working with Microsoft partner Object Consulting, Xpreshon runs the media streaming and customer management components of its solution on a Windows Azure platform. This configuration allows the company to effectively manage and grow its business assets with minimal investment and a highly scalable virtual infrastructure.

Business NeedsFormed in 2011, Xpreshon is the product of its co-founders' business vision: an action sports–focused application that aggregates news stories, athlete profiles, live events, and video footage from various sources into a single portal. Their vision was that a subscriber would be able to use a Microsoft Xbox device to perform a range of activities, from researching a favorite athlete to streaming an action sports movie or live event. Some content would be available for free, while premium services would require payment.

To make this vision into reality, Xpreshon needed a technology platform that was both affordable and scalable. A majority of its startup capital was already earmarked for customer-facing application development and content licensing, so the complexities of deploying and operating a traditional data center seemed prohibitively costly and potentially wasteful. Not knowing up-front how successful its business would be or at what rate it would expand, Xpreshon was prudent in wanting to avoid unnecessary or unmanageable IT investments.

Customer: XpreshonWebsite: www.xpreshon.comCustomer Size: 2 employeesCountry or Region: AustraliaIndustry: Media and entertainmentPartner: Object ConsultingWebsite: www.objectconsulting.com.au

Customer ProfileHeadquartered in Geelong, Australia, Xpreshon is a multiplatform online portal for action sports entertainment enthusiasts.

Software and Services Windows Azure− Windows Azure platform

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Startup Delivers Action Sports Content Using a Highly Scalable Windows Azure Solution

The co-founders did not have technology backgrounds, nor did they want to divert their primary focus from making their content as compelling and plentiful as possible. These priorities led them to search for a technology partner that could deliver on the digital needs of their business while respecting the company's limited resources.

SolutionXpreshon chose to work with Object Consulting, which provides enterprise digital solutions. Object was awarded the Microsoft 2012 Country Partner of the Year for Australia and won the 2013 Worldwide Partner of the Year for Cloud: Enterprise Customers. Together, Object and Xpreshon spent several months determining the customer, business and technical requirements that Xpreshon had. Using key aspects of an agile development approach, Object built an Xpreshon application for Windows 8 that uses a media-streaming, customer and content management platform hosted on Windows Azure.

One reason for using Windows Azure was the peace of mind it provided to Xpreshon as a cloud-based service that had proven success with other Object customers. “We did our own due diligence, looking at other services and delivery tools,” says Jason Webb, Director and Co-Founder of Xpreshon. “When we weighed all the pros and cons, it seemed clear that Azure was the best solution for our business.”

The Windows 8 Xpreshon application went live in early 2013. Because of the broad Windows Azure support for multiple device platforms, Object was quickly able to develop and release an Xbox application a short time later. Next, in early 2014, Xpreshon released a version of the application for Windows Phone, which has shown high ratings and popularity as a download in the Windows Store.

BenefitsUsing Windows Azure as the back end to the Xpreshon customer-facing applications relieved the company of the significant expense of purchasing, operating, and maintaining on-premises servers. Additionally, by choosing a scalable solution and isolating it in the cloud, Xpreshon freed up its co-founders to focus on the key innovations of their business. These choices

provided an easily accessible way to manage business growth based on the data that Windows Azure collected about their services.

Reduced Startup Costs and ComplexitiesChoosing a cloud-based infrastructure to support its online services saved Xpreshon a great deal of time and money over a more traditional data center solution. These savings in turn allowed the company to get to market much faster with its customer-facing applications, an essential activity tied directly to producing revenue. The company realized further savings due to Object Consulting’s knowledge of Microsoft products, a familiarity that greatly reduced development complexities.

“It's ideal in many ways for a startup company to consider working with Windows Azure,” says Kevin Francis, Microsoft Practice Manager at Object Consulting. “Without the rapid development and scalability in the cloud that Windows Azure provides, I don't think Xpreshon could have gotten up and running in nearly the short amount of time that was required.”

Webb agrees: “We're able to deliver high-quality results to our end users with very little effort on our part.”

Efficiencies of a Common PlatformBy developing on a Windows Azure platform, Object was able to deepen the portfolio of Xpreshon’s offering. The co-founders' original vision to develop only for gamers blossomed into feature-rich applications on multiple platforms (Windows 8, Xbox, and Windows Phone). “Running our applications on Windows 8 devices using Windows Azure means that our users have access to Xpreshon content wherever they are,” says Webb.

The code sets for all three applications overlapped enough to provide an efficiency of scale that made it possible for all three to be released within one year. “We thought it would be great if we could be on multiple Microsoft platforms as a single presence,” says Webb. “The strength of our brand is enhanced by having simultaneous offerings on all three devices.”

Scalability and Ease of ManagementBecause Xpreshon can use as many or as few Windows Azure services as it needs at any time, its business model has considerable flexibility. As the company increases its subscriber base or expands into new geographic areas, it can adapt its chosen platform as needed to add or augment existing services. “We really fell in love with the ability to have a back-end platform that was flexible and strong enough for us to grow to our own scale,” says Webb.

To put that scalability into daily use, Object built an administrative web portal that Xpreshon can use to monitor and adjust the platform based on business needs. For example, the co-founders can add new content by simply dropping in movie files as they become available.

Just as easily, they can tune server performance ensuring customers will not experience any lag. A recent spike in US-based traffic led them to add virtual web servers to their configuration. “We logged in, clicked a few buttons, and then clicked OK,” says Webb. “I like the fact that I can easily log in and manage our services with Windows Azure wherever I am around the world.”

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Document published March 2014