Granicus Standardizes Hybrid, Government-Grade Video Infrastructure with Wowza

Key Takeaways

• 70 cloud Wowza instances support 7,000+ agencies
• Over 100 on‑prem Wowza deployments across government facilities
• Pull‑based CDN workflow simplifies scaling for new agencies
• Archive layer uses S3 and CloudFront via Wowza
• Exploring Kubernetes autoscaling to match viewer demand

Summary

Granicus, a digital‑engagement platform for more than 7,000 public‑sector agencies, continues to rely on Wowza Media Systems for its hybrid video infrastructure. The company operates roughly 70 cloud‑based Wowza instances alongside over 100 on‑prem deployments, enabling live and on‑demand streaming of government meetings. A pull‑based CDN workflow and standardized naming simplify distribution at scale, while archived content is stored in Amazon S3 and delivered via CloudFront. Granicus is now testing containerized, auto‑scaling deployments on Kubernetes to match viewer demand.

Pulse Analysis

Hybrid video streaming has become a cornerstone of government transparency, and Granicus’ partnership with Wowza illustrates how public‑sector entities can meet stringent security and compliance requirements while delivering high‑quality live and on‑demand content. By standardizing on Wowza’s media engine, Granicus can ingest streams locally in agency data centers, then funnel them to a centrally managed cloud layer where restreaming and distribution are unified. This dual‑model approach mitigates policy‑driven constraints, offers operational control, and ensures a consistent viewer experience regardless of the origin point.

The technical backbone relies on a pull‑based CDN workflow that leverages consistent naming conventions, allowing content delivery networks to retrieve streams on demand without complex push configurations. This design reduces operational friction and accelerates onboarding of new agencies, supporting a multi‑tenant architecture that spans dozens of Wowza instances. Archived meetings are stored in Amazon S3, with Wowza acting as an intermediary to Amazon CloudFront, delivering fast, scalable playback that satisfies public‑access mandates.

Looking ahead, Granicus is evaluating containerization and Kubernetes‑based autoscaling to dynamically allocate archive capacity based on real‑time viewer demand. Such elasticity promises lower infrastructure costs and improved performance during peak civic events. The move underscores a broader industry trend: government video platforms are shifting toward cloud‑native, scalable solutions that balance flexibility, security, and cost efficiency, positioning providers like Wowza as essential infrastructure partners for the next generation of public‑sector digital engagement.