CenturyLink Case Studies En Masse Entertainment delivers Great Games & Great Service on CenturyLink

	En Masse Entertainment delivers Great Games & Great Service on CenturyLink CenturyLink

En Masse Entertainment delivers Great Games & Great Service on CenturyLink

CenturyLink

Technology Category	Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
Applicable Industries	Software
Applicable Functions	Business Operation
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
Challenge	En Masse Entertainment, an online gaming company, was facing the challenge of delivering an uninterrupted online gaming experience that keeps players in the game and the excitement streaming. The company was looking at spending more than $1 million in capital expense just to upgrade its internal infrastructure to the latest technology. With the business expanding into other games and a mobile gaming initiative coming to fruition, a new IT strategy was necessary to avoid soaring costs and the erosion of the user experience so vital in the gaming world. The company was expanding into Brazil, Australia and elsewhere. So any solution had to have a global footprint, with multiple data centers to avoid latency issues that can kill game performance. Read More
About Customer	En Masse Entertainment was founded in 2009 with the goal of building loyal audiences for the finest online games in the world and a motto of “Great Games — Great Service.” En Masse successfully launched its inaugural title, TERA — a revolutionary action-combat MMO — in 2012, followed closely by the online shooter ZMR (Zombies Monsters Robots). But today, “Great Games — Great Service” isn’t limited by platform; En Masse has expanded into mobile games with multiple titles. The company's core DNA and offerings are online, which brings new challenges and costs. The company was looking at spending more than $1 million in capital expense just to upgrade its internal infrastructure to the latest technology. Read More
Solution	En Masse has shifted many of its games into CenturyLink Cloud compute, a public cloud offering processing capability that can expand its virtual and physical resources on demand. CenturyLink was ready for En Masse’s needs, having developed a gaming reference architecture with customers like En Masse in mind. The architecture is designed to maximize centralized management and global replication in other cloud data centers so that latency is not an issue for users in any corner of the world. These games can support anywhere from a few dozen to hundreds of users at any one time. Spikes in demand are handled through automated provisioning without burdensome linkages that raise costs. When more CPU or memory is needed it’s configured on the fly. A gigabit connection from CenturyLink’s Chicago data center easily handles bandwidth needs. That available bandwidth is crucial to reduce or avoid latency issues. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Applicable Industries

Software

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

Challenge

En Masse Entertainment, an online gaming company, was facing the challenge of delivering an uninterrupted online gaming experience that keeps players in the game and the excitement streaming. The company was looking at spending more than $1 million in capital expense just to upgrade its internal infrastructure to the latest technology. With the business expanding into other games and a mobile gaming initiative coming to fruition, a new IT strategy was necessary to avoid soaring costs and the erosion of the user experience so vital in the gaming world. The company was expanding into Brazil, Australia and elsewhere. So any solution had to have a global footprint, with multiple data centers to avoid latency issues that can kill game performance.

About Customer

En Masse Entertainment was founded in 2009 with the goal of building loyal audiences for the finest online games in the world and a motto of “Great Games — Great Service.” En Masse successfully launched its inaugural title, TERA — a revolutionary action-combat MMO — in 2012, followed closely by the online shooter ZMR (Zombies Monsters Robots). But today, “Great Games — Great Service” isn’t limited by platform; En Masse has expanded into mobile games with multiple titles. The company's core DNA and offerings are online, which brings new challenges and costs. The company was looking at spending more than $1 million in capital expense just to upgrade its internal infrastructure to the latest technology.

Solution

En Masse has shifted many of its games into CenturyLink Cloud compute, a public cloud offering processing capability that can expand its virtual and physical resources on demand. CenturyLink was ready for En Masse’s needs, having developed a gaming reference architecture with customers like En Masse in mind. The architecture is designed to maximize centralized management and global replication in other cloud data centers so that latency is not an issue for users in any corner of the world. These games can support anywhere from a few dozen to hundreds of users at any one time. Spikes in demand are handled through automated provisioning without burdensome linkages that raise costs. When more CPU or memory is needed it’s configured on the fly. A gigabit connection from CenturyLink’s Chicago data center easily handles bandwidth needs. That available bandwidth is crucial to reduce or avoid latency issues.

Impact #1	The company can now launch games with no up-front costs versus buying servers and hoping the game is successful enough to justify the expenditures.
Impact #2	Provisioning can be done in minutes.
Impact #3	The small internal IT staff can now focus entirely on how the game is performing rather than managing infrastructure.

Impact #1

The company can now launch games with no up-front costs versus buying servers and hoping the game is successful enough to justify the expenditures.

Impact #2

Provisioning can be done in minutes.

Impact #3

The small internal IT staff can now focus entirely on how the game is performing rather than managing infrastructure.

Benefit #1	Changed cost structure from $1.2 million in capex to $25,000 a month in opex that will scale up or down with usage.

Benefit #1

Changed cost structure from $1.2 million in capex to $25,000 a month in opex that will scale up or down with usage.

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Overview

En Masse Entertainment delivers Great Games & Great Service on CenturyLink

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit