Customer Stories

WOW service 24/7

Summary

A global gaming company which provides a platform for clients to host their own games uses Zenlayer Bare Metal Cloud to quickly and easily provision servers around the world and meet user needs.

Gaming Platform Rapidly Builds Global Network Using Zenlayer Bare Metal Cloud

By the Numbers

1100+

Servers

Countries

25 ms

Average latency over "last mile"

< 48 hrs

Deployment time

< 15 mins

Response time

< 4 hrs

Resolution time

The problem

Expanding quickly at the edge while offering consistent service

The Client has a successful business providing a platform for gaming companies to host games. Thanks to their good reputation and the ever-increasing popularity of online gaming, however, demand was spiking beyond what their existing infrastructure could handle. Furthermore, their success in APAC regions was attracting interest from gaming companies around the world, including emerging markets where the Client had no existing infrastructure at all.

How could the Client maintain their momentum without sinking all of their profits into new deployments? Among their considerations: their network used a hybrid cloud solution, and any new deployments would need direct access to both public and private clouds. Because gaming requires low latency, servers would need to be deployed as close to end users as possible. And to keep this problem from reoccurring later, the network would need to be able to expand quickly in any location.

Gamers & latency

Gamers are particularly sensitive to even the slightest changes in latency because split-second timing can mean the difference between a win and a loss. If your opponent’s actions are recorded more quickly by the server, they will have an advantage in the game. Serious gamers have text overlays on their games that display exactly what their ping time is at every second. These are so common that Steam, UPlay, and Origin all offer them natively on their platforms. Therefore, being able to offer the same, low-latency service globally is crucial to any gaming company with international players.

The solution

Bare Metal Cloud around the world

The solution proved simple. Zenlayer Bare Metal Cloud met every single requirement and required almost no effort on the part of the Client to deploy. Over 6 months, more than 1,100 bare metal servers were deployed across 5 continents, including sizable presences in emerging markets like Brazil and the Philippines.

For every aspect of their solution, the Client has just one point of contact for any questions or requests. Responses are received in less than 15 minutes and most concerns are resolved in 4 hours or less.

The results

Low latency and superior digital experiences for users

By choosing Zenlayer for their network solution, the Client gained the ability to quickly expand both their gaming platform’s presence and performance around the world. The bare metal servers deployed on the edge provide the required low latency for gaming. The Client can focus on providing excellent digital experiences for their own clients and their users without worrying about infrastructure deployments or maintenance.

VIP service that WOWs

The Client initially chose Zenlayer for its complete networking solution, and has stayed with Zenlayer for the six months since because of the “WOW” service they’ve received. To respond to the Client’s needs as quickly as possible, a Slack channel was created for instant communication and constant contact.

Because of their need for hundreds of servers in multiple locations, it was decided early on that the Client would not use the Zenlayer Online Portal for ordering servers but instead would place orders directly with representatives. Not only would this save the Client time from ordering servers individually, it meant that the Client would not be constrained by how many servers were “in stock” and could order as many as needed. Of course, the Client can still use the Online Portal at any time to check the status of their network, their bandwidth usage, individual or regional statistics, and so on. Additionally, the Client’s engineers can use the Online Portal to order test servers in new regions.

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