Build vs. Buy: An Architect's Guide to Video & WebRTC

The world of video has undergone significant changes since 2020, with business and video conferencing apps experiencing record downloads as people moved online to stay connected during lockdowns. WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) standard has played a crucial role in this shift, providing a standardized way to implement video across various browsers and platforms. Implementing WebRTC can be challenging, and businesses often face difficulties in choosing between building a custom solution using open-source software or integrating a cloud-based API like Twilio. While modern development leans towards cloud-based solutions, there are situations where building a custom solution is necessary due to regulatory and compliance issues or fixed operational costs. In most cases, however, choosing a cloud-based API like Twilio offers faster implementation, lower initial and ongoing costs, on-demand scalability, measurable performance, increased security, and managed upgrades to the latest standards.