Unlocking The Future of Gaming: Insights From The Great Cloud Reset
Oct 31, 2023
This post is based on "The Great Cloud Reset: Gaming Industry Spotlight", published by Akamai, July 2023.
In case you missed our recent gaming webinar with Akamai where they highlighted a recent cloud study, we will go over the main points related to gaming from their spotlight piece. The Forrester study reveals that tech leaders worldwide, including those in the gaming industry, recognize the limitations of the centralized cloud for modern application development.
They emphasize the importance of adopting cloud-native architecture and distributed services to meet evolving demands, react to trends, maintain global performance standards, and ensure compliance with data localization regulations. Let’s go over some key findings.
Embracing cloud-native strategies in the gaming industry
The gaming industry is increasingly embracing cloud-native strategies, with a focus on databases, virtual machines, and SaaS. The report spotlight indicates that most gaming respondents are relying more on the cloud and expect apps to be cloud-native soon.
This is not surprising considering that the cloud gaming market is rapidly expanding, with analysts projecting it to reach nearly $21.54 billion by 2030 per Allied Market Research as referenced in a 2022 from Akamai report, “Gaming Respawned.”
The need for speed - at the edge
The gaming industry is prioritizing speed and localization in their cloud strategies. The report spotlight indicated 92% of gaming companies have 6 or more workloads requiring support across multiple regions, and 74% have 6 or more workloads running at the edge. This reflects a strong preference for cloud providers capable of reducing latency by localizing data, applications, and workloads closer to end users.
With multi-region support and edge computing emerging as key architectural priorities, it's clear that the need for speed is driving cloud decisions in the gaming sector. If you are curious about why edge computing and hyper distributed architecture approach may have advantages beyond the centralized cloud, be sure to read this blog.
Multi-cloud pain points: tackling complexity and cost issues
This important area of the report spotlight was highlighted during the recent Macrometa and Akamai gaming webinar. When gaming companies were asked to rank their top cloud-related pain points, complexity was most commonly cited as an issue, with 58% ranking it as a pain point. Regulatory requirements followed closely behind at 52%, then cost at 42%.
A lack of internal skills, like those needed for edge compute or specific cloud environments, was called out by 40% of respondents. Finding a provider that could meet data residency and sovereignty requirements (38%), getting current providers to build and maintain edge apps and data (38%), and having providers operate in underserved markets (38%) rounded out the top pain points for gaming companies adopting cloud strategies.
Deploying workloads in the most suitable cloud environment
When deploying workloads in the cloud, gaming companies aim to optimize performance and user experience as top priorities, per the report spotlight. To achieve improved performance, revenue, and enhanced gameplay, companies are strategically choosing cloud environments based on scalability and edge capabilities. The focus is on selecting cloud platforms that allow gaming workloads to flexibly scale while also minimizing latency by processing data closer to end users. By thoughtfully aligning workloads with the most suitable cloud infrastructure, gaming companies can unlock the full performance potential of their services.
Key highlights from the study for gaming
Photo by Unsplash and Getty images
To optimize cloud strategies, gaming companies should embrace cloud-native practices for flexible multi-cloud deployment encompassing both core and edge environments. Leveraging cloud-native ecosystems enables building versatile applications and infrastructure. Latency issues can be overcome by moving latency-sensitive workloads closer to end-users via robust edge infrastructure. Complexity and skill gaps can be alleviated through open source and portable technologies when designing tailored cloud networks and edge infrastructure. Finally, utilizing distributed cloud computing platforms facilitates data sovereignty compliance without sacrificing performance.
Find out more today!
If you would like to learn more information about the gaming results of the study download the "The Great Cloud Reset: Gaming Industry Spotlight" from Akamai.
Contact us to schedule a demo or chat to learn how Macrometa's PhotonIQ services like Virtual Waiting Rooms and Fingerprint can enhance performance and gaming experiences while thwarting bad actors and bots. Be sure to check out the Akamai and Macrometa gaming webinar replay, “Using Operational Data to Delight Gamers.”
First photo by Pero Kalimero on Unsplash
