A technique for managing the streaming of digital video content to multiple clients involves identifying an attribute of a content element that is streamed to a client (140) and selecting a protection mechanism for the content element as a function of the attribute (144), wherein the protection mechanism enables streaming of the content element to the clients in the event of a resource failure. Another technique for streamlining digital video content to multiple clients involves establishing a logical group of IP-connected stream servers, generating state information amongst stream servers in the logical group, and using the shared state information to respond to resource failures within the logical group.
