MANAGED SERVICES gaming
#dcsarticle
http://www.dcseurope.info/n/vfwz
Gartner research (
http://www.gartner.com/ newsroom/id/2614915) estimates that by 2015 the global gaming market will total $111 billion with a boom in mobile and online gaming, buoyed by the continued rise in the use of mobile devices. A major reason behind this growth is the use of cloud based infrastructure by game developers to host games, enabling them to more effectively provide uninterrupted, high performance across any device. This article will look at the main issues that game developers face and how the use of cloud infrastructure is able to deliver the best lag-free, scalable and flexible gaming experience.
By Jonathan Wisler, GM for SoftLayer IBM, EMEA.
The rise of
game developers playing in the Cloud
HISTORICALLY, larger game development houses had the upper hand on startups and indie game companies with easier access to more money and better IT resources. The flexibility of a cloud development environment can grant the same levels of performance, flexibility and scalability to meet the ambitions of companies both small and large, levelling the playing field. Now an independent can offer the same performance as the major publishers.
The move to the cloud opens up a world of possibilities for game developers. The DevOps movement facilitated by cloud, for instance, is just one model enabling independent gaming houses to innovate and deliver off-the-shelf solutions faster than ever before. A fresh, even radical, software development process, DevOps enables collaboration, faster iterations, and continuous development by integration between developers and IT operations professionals. DevOps optimises resources, ensuring all stakeholders reap the benefits of cost and efficiency of cloud by granting developers faster access to new
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environments, a greater selection of tools, and improved test control; whilst allowing IT teams to retain control over these environments and instantly move workloads between on-premise and off-premise.
Power behind the playing
Once a game hits the market, delivering a flawless gaming experience becomes the primary concern. To remain competitive, cloud infrastructure should consistently deliver the highest gaming power possible. In many instances, the most effective way to do this is through utilising bare metal servers as it is a form of dedicated architecture which provides the highest amount of gaming power needed without impacting gameplay quality. Multiplay is an example of one of the world’s largest hosts of online game servers and is home to one of Europe’s biggest online gaming communities with over seven million gamers playing on their servers every month, for many major titles, including Minecraft (
https://minecraft.net/), and Battlefield 4 (
http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield-4). In the case of Battlefield 4,
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