What is Wowza? :
What is Wowza? The Wowza Media Server is a upcoming, commercial alternative to Adobe's Flash Media Server with some unique features such as FastForward and Rewind.
The software supports Live streaming, Video on Demand with FF, rewind and prepared operations, multi-user video chats (video, audeo and text) as well as Video Recording.
Wowza enables dramatic improvements in Flash streaming economics
Flash Market! :
Flash Market! Flash is quickly becoming the video format of choice with a 95% increase in streamed video market share in 2006
Commands 97% share of the user-generated video segment
Wowza offers :
Wowza offers Yet, until now, Flash streaming server solutions have proved inadequate in meeting the growing demands of the market
Wowza offers a scalable, cost-effective platform to capitalize on the exploding demand for Flash streaming content.
Target Community :
Target Community Content publishers
Advertisers
Entertainment and media companies
Hosting service providers
Content delivery networks(CDNs)
The Wowza Media Server Advantage :
The Wowza Media Server Advantage The Wowza Media Server combines an innovative 64-bit architecture with rich functionality and high performance to enable interactive and entertaining Flash applications and content, including video on demand, live video distribution, video recoding and chat for a broad range of uses in entertainment, social media, advertising, enterprise, education, government, and Internet commerce.
More Advantages :
More Advantages Small Busineess to Large-Scale Content Delivery
Operates on Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Unix Solaris or any other platform with the Java runtime environment
Features: includes a number of features such as fast-forward and rewind and lets viewers easily navigate pre-recorded content
Unlimited Connections Support for entertainment network, social media services, hosting services and content delivery networks.
Infrastructure Grade: Wowza is tightly engineered, highly scalable Flash streaming server with exceptional stabitlity and standards based management capabilities.
Web Server vs. Streaming Server :
Web Server vs. Streaming Server Web Server: Streamed over HTTP. The streaming has to be controlled from the client side.
Streaming Server: The server admin can control the rate of streaming. It uses RTMP Protocol (Real Time Messaging Protocol). This protocol is optimized for Flash.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/compare/webservvstreamserv.aspx