NewsOutsourcingInfrastructure

Worldwide, online gaming revenue is estimated to reach US$26.4 billion in 2015, more than doubling over the course of six years, according to DFC Intelligence; and this market is estimated to generate revenues of $1 billion by 2015 in Southeast Asia. In Singapore, the establishment of a Games Solution Center (GSC) by the Media Development Authority in October 2011 for local game developers to develop their games, underscores the growth of the gaming sector.

However, to achieve exponential growth, gaming companies must be lithe and quickly adjust to the changing needs for IT infrastructure to support game play. But building out complex, costly data centers, and hiring specialized staff, is not the most prudent strategy. Still, interruptions from outages, network lag and scalability issues caused by unpredictable usage patterns can mean "game over" in the competitive world of online game development.

By melding a wide array of internet-scale cloud infrastructure options - including dedicated, virtualized and managed servers -- SoftLayer Technologies is providing some of today's top game developers a platform where they can develop, test, launch and run their latest games. These online gaming companies include Broken Bulb Game Studios, East Side Games, KIXEYE, Hothead Games and Storm8.

"Game developers do not have the time, operational expertise or resources to manage their own complex data centers because they need to focus on their core business -- developing new games, launching before the competition and keeping players engaged," said George Karidis, chief strategy officer at SoftLayer. "Because we understand the high stakes of their operations, we've tailored our infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings to meet gaming companies' changing demands -- from initial game release and explosive, overnight growth, to the variables that come with everyday play."

"Working with SoftLayer gave us the right mix of dedicated and pure cloud-based resources," said Robert Nelson, CEO of Broken Bulb Studios. "We have a robust platform that can support our massive bursts in user adoption when rolling out new games. This is because we're able to easily provision any and all IT resources while overcoming network latency issues, giving our users a great online experience."

Operating on the SoftLayer IaaS, Broken Bulb Studios can roll out cloud computing instances in minutes, or turn up dedicated servers in just two hours. Rapid response to their dynamic infrastructure needs and an easy consumptive billing model mean access to the capacity they need when they need it. This way they can focus on their core mission of game development and control costs by only paying for the servers they need at any given time.

The scalability, performance and control needed for gaming applications result from SoftLayer's seamless integration of three distinct and redundant gigabit network architectures - public, private and data center-to-data center - into a 'network-within-a-network' topology. SoftLayer operates more than a dozen data centers around the world - including Dallas; Seattle; San Jose; Washington, D.C.; Amsterdam; and Singapore. The data centers are connected via private, 10Gb Ethernet point-to-point connections.

The high-speed infrastructure is complemented by high-level customer service.  "We're typically working at odd hours, and it is difficult to have to wait for someone to get back to us for something as routine as turning up a server," John Todd, director of operations at KIXEYE. An automated Web interface allows the developer to order and successfully turn up new physical servers on demand.