Bring your own cloud. Keep your video. Skip the markup.
BYOC is the operating model behind Nulx. This page defines the category, compares it honestly against managed platforms and DIY, and says clearly who should not use it.
Definition
What BYOC video infrastructure means
BYOC (bring-your-own-cloud) video infrastructure means the video never enters the vendor's account. Your source file lands in your S3 or R2 bucket. Processing reads from that bucket and writes the output back to it. Playback is served from your CDN. The vendor orchestrates the work and never takes custody of the asset. The practical consequence: there is no storage or bandwidth to mark up, because the vendor never touches either one.
Three ways to run video
Managed vs. BYOC vs. DIY
The same workload, three custody and cost models.
| Managed | BYOC | DIY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where your video lives | In the vendor's account | In your account | On your servers |
| Transfer fees | Vendor markup | Direct cloud rates | Direct cloud rates |
| Operations burden | None | None | All on you |
| If the vendor shuts down | Assets at risk | No impact | Not applicable |
| Cross-border data transfer | Happens | Does not happen | Does not happen |
Where the model comes from
An old enterprise pattern, late to video
Bring-your-own models are not new. Enterprise software adopted bring-your-own-storage and bring-your-own-key years ago, once buyers realized that custody and markup were bundled together. Video infrastructure was simply late — the industry normalized uploading your library into the vendor's account because that was how the first generation of platforms was built. As cloud storage became cheap and S3-compatible APIs became standard, the reasons to hand over custody disappeared.
Honest limits
BYOC is the wrong choice if…
- You don't have a cloud account and don't want one. A managed platform will serve you better.
- Your viewing volume is under roughly 500 hours a month. At that scale, the markup you avoid is smaller than the flat fee.
- You need a full CMS with editorial workflows. BYOC is infrastructure, not a newsroom tool.
- You want someone to own your uptime end to end. With BYOC, your storage and CDN stay in your account, so parts of the chain remain yours.
If any of the above is you, we'd rather you didn't sign up. Churn is expensive for both of us.
Good fit
Who BYOC is for
- You already run on AWS, Cloudflare, or another S3-compatible cloud and want video to live where the rest of your infrastructure lives.
- Your monthly viewing volume is large enough that per-gigabyte markup is the biggest line on your video bill.
- You have compliance or data-residency requirements that make handing media to a third party a review blocker.
- You want the option to leave without a migration project.
Common misconceptions
Five things people get wrong about BYOC
| The assumption | The reality |
|---|---|
| “Isn't this just self-hosting?” | We operate the encoding, orchestration, and player pipeline. Only the ownership of the files moves to you — not the operations. |
| “Setup must be complicated.” | One IAM policy plus a bucket name. Most teams finish in about three minutes. |
| “It must be more expensive.” | Below roughly 500 viewing hours a month, that's true — the flat fee outweighs the avoided markup. Above that, the math flips. |
| “What can the vendor do inside my bucket?” | The exact IAM permissions Nulx requests are published in full — read and write on the prefix you choose, nothing else. |
| “What about performance?” | Playback comes from your CDN, so you pick the regions and the cache behavior. Delivery is as fast as any asset you serve today. |
Under the hood
How it works technically
The architecture is deliberately boring. Your bytes take the shortest path possible, and Nulx only ever handles metadata.
Your bucket
Uploads go straight to your S3 or R2 bucket using your own credentials. Nulx never proxies the bytes.
In-place processing
Workers assume a scoped IAM role, read the source, encode, and write renditions back to the same bucket. The media never crosses into Nulx infrastructure.
Your CDN
Playback URLs resolve to your CDN domain. Nulx serves metadata and manifests; your CDN serves the segments.
Next step
See exactly what gets installed in your account
The setup guide shows the IAM policy, the bucket layout, and every permission before you grant anything.