Background
In 2020, a Chinese gaming company operating across multiple global markets, including the USA, Japan, Korea, Europe, and the fast-growing Southeast Asia (SEA) region, faced a significant challenge. Despite robust global growth, the company experienced a dramatic decrease in player retention in key regions such as India, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, and Indonesia. This issue was particularly puzzling as other regions did not exhibit similar problems.
The Challenge
Upon investigation, the company identified that the primary cause of player attrition in these regions was poor game performance. High latency, slow speeds, security concerns, and inconsistent availability were causing a subpar user experience, leading to decreased player retention. These performance issues were notably absent in other regions.
Diagnostic and Problem Identification
To resolve these performance issues, the gaming company sought the expertise of Mlytics for a detailed diagnostic. Mlytics used its Pulse tool, which monitors and analyzes real-time CDN availability and performance data, to diagnose the problem. The analysis revealed that the company was using CDN A exclusively across all regions. However, Pulse data showed that CDN A had significant latency and availability limitations in the affected regions, resulting in poor performance and user experience.
Solution Development
The gaming company needed a way to identify the best-performing CDN in each region and explore whether a single CDN could provide optimal performance globally. However, it became clear that a multi-CDN approach would be more effective in addressing region-specific performance issues.
Mlytics proposed a solution to integrate the gaming company’s existing CDN A into the Mlytics platform and supplement it with additional CDNs, specifically CDN B and CDN C, for regions like India, Brazil, and Indonesia. This approach allowed the gaming company to respect its long-term contract with CDN A while ensuring that players in these regions received the best possible performance in terms of speed, latency, and availability.
Implementation: Multi-CDN Strategy
On the Mlytics platform, the gaming company began operating with a multi-CDN strategy. Mlytics assisted with both CDN acquisition and efficient management through advanced features like Smart Load Balancing and Routing Policy.
Smart Load Balancing
Mlytics Smart Load Balancing system intelligently found the fastest route between the gaming company’s servers and the users. This system leveraged real-time CDN latency and availability data collected via real user monitoring and synthetic monitoring. By routing traffic to the best-performing CDN, Smart Load Balancing ensured optimal game performance and user experience. This dynamic traffic management significantly reduced latency and improved load times, resulting in a smoother and more responsive gaming experience.
Routing Policy
In situations where the gaming company needed to use a specific CDN for a particular region, a “Static routing” policy was implemented. This policy enforced the use of a designated CDN regardless of the smart load balancing decision. The built-in routing policy enabled the gaming company to select the best CDN based on latency and availability data, ensuring that the optimal CDN was always chosen for each region.
Results and Impact
The implementation of the Mlytics multi-CDN solution yielded remarkable results. Within the first quarter of collaboration, player retention rates increased significantly, demonstrating the effectiveness of the solution. Overall speed, availability, and performance improved globally, with notable increases in SEA (India, Vietnam) and Brazil.
Performance metrics as speed in these regions increased by 15%, and cost savings amounted to 41% due to optimized CDN usage. The gaming company also achieved 100% availability and zero downtime, further enhancing user experience and driving revenue growth.
Security Enhancements
One of the gaming company’s concerns was maintaining a high level of security while using multiple CDNs. Mlytics addressed this by providing Origin Shield and a 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC) service. Origin Shield protected the origin server from direct attacks and ensured that traffic was filtered through a secure layer. The 24/7 SOC service monitored security events and provided real-time threat mitigation, eliminating the need for separate security measures for each CDN and proving to be a cost-effective and efficient solution.
Enhanced Observability and Support
Previously, the gaming company faced challenges with limited visibility into user experience and application performance. Mlytics’ observability tools provided real-time insights into performance issues through comprehensive dashboards and alerting systems. These tools, combined with Origin Shield and 24/7 SOC service, allowed the gaming company to swiftly identify and troubleshoot problems with interactive technical support. This led to improved operational agility and efficiency.
Conclusion
Over four years of collaboration, the gaming company achieved significant milestones in performance and cost efficiency. The partnership with Mlytics resulted in a stable, high-speed gaming experience across all regions, increased user retention rates, and enhanced overall company growth and revenue. By leveraging a multi-CDN strategy with intelligent load balancing and robust security measures, the company transformed its global gaming operations and secured a competitive edge in the market. The comprehensive, real-time monitoring and management provided by Mlytics ensured that the gaming company could deliver the best possible customer experience, no matter where their players were located.
