Gaming
Asia Pacific
Enterprise/Public Sector
With Alibaba Cloud, we are able to fully utilize the advanced cloud technology of a global public cloud, which we had longed for, and achieve stable operation of a large-scale system with a large number of users. We are very happy with the results.
(Mr. Tan, Leader of the Technology Department, enish Co. Ltd.)
(Mr. Tan, Leader of the Technology Department, enish Co. Ltd.)
About enish
As a leading game production company in Minato-ku, Tokyo, enish Co. Ltd. focuses on planning, developing, and operating mobile games. The company has produced many popular titles, including the original RPG De:Lithe: Forgetting True King and the Engaging Angel, which garnered 7.77 million downloads. The latest smartphone game from enish, Attack on Titan: Brave Order, is based on the popular manga Attack on Titan, which has sold over 100 million copies worldwide and is receiving positive reviews from gamers. It is a multiplayer co-op RPG that allows players to collaborate with up to 300 other players. The game achieved one million downloads on its first launch day and has since broken records one after another, surpassing three million downloads in about a month.
Challenge
Frequent Network FailuresWhile the business was steadily expanding, enish was plagued by frequent network failures, and rapid network expansion was a pressing issue.
Domestic Cloud LimitationsThere were maintenance and operations-related hassles after using the domestic cloud for many years, including application-based network expansion with an awareness of the physical layer and unexpected server migration work due to physical limits.
Public Cloud ConstraintsGiven the limited ability of the domestic cloud in terms of scalability, enish also started using the public cloud. Although there was no need to be aware of resource limitations, it became frustrating to be unable to resolve issues on time due to the ticket-based support system.
Service ObsolescenceSince service deployment in the domestic cloud was IaaS-centric, there was an enormous burden of storage expansion and switching in the event of failure, which was not much different from on-premise.
The latest cloud technologies related to the public cloud, including advanced and convenient features such as highly automated and fully managed services, offered much-needed flexibility and convenience. Hence, it was an attractive choice for enish.
Why Alibaba Cloud
After considering various aspects, enish selected Alibaba Cloud as the ideal system migration partner. Alibaba Cloud met all of the requirements in terms of scale and security, including holding the world's third-largest market share and compliance with major international information security standards.
The Latest Cloud TechnologiesAlibaba Cloud offers the most advanced cloud technologies, including containers, databases, and frequently updated virtual machines with the latest CPUs. In addition, the industry's best-in-class SLAs (including virtual machine services) are critical to ensuring system stability. The latest cloud technologies (such as containers and databases) have made various processes more efficient and significantly reduced maintenance and operation hours:
Below are the latest technologies by Alibaba Cloud that helped enish move past the barriers:
・Kubernetes-Based Container ServicesWe have introduced Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) With Alibaba Cloud Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK), container deployment can only be done from the console, and configuration files can be reused to build multiple servers simultaneously.
・Cloud Native Databaseenish successfully migrated to a fully managed, cloud-native database ApsaraDB PolarDB for MySQL. The highly scalable service supports a capacity of 100 TB and eliminates the need for redesign and data migration during instances when performance or capacity limits are reached. Another key feature is that despite the large capacity, backups can be completed in an extremely short time compared to building the system in-house.
・Extensive Migration ToolsA rich set of migration services is available (including Server Migration Center (SMC) for virtual machines and Database Transmission Service (DTS) for databases) to automate virtually any migration task between Alibaba Cloud products and on-premise or external clouds.
Reasonable CostMost Alibaba Cloud products (including virtual machine services) are available on a month-to-month subscription basis, making them reasonably priced from the outset.
Sincere SupportIn addition to a ticket-based support system, chat tools help facilitate quick consultation with the sales and technical staff. In addition, requests for product development can be made directly to Alibaba Cloud. When switching to the production system this time, Alibaba Cloud provided extensive support with sales, technical staff, and dedicated account technicians on call. The flexible support provided in each situation allowed enish to complete its work seamlessly.
Architecture
Server Configuration OverviewThe server configuration overview of the Attack on Titan: Brave Order system is outlined below. It consists of seven different game and resource servers – Battle, App, Chat, Party, Notify, Tool, and GvG, based on their specific roles:
①Resource ServerIt adopts Object Storage Service (OSS) for storing and managing resources. Static hosting functions are used to deliver resources to clients. Alibaba Cloud CDN is used for faster and more efficient delivery of large files.
②Game Server: Battle ServerThe Battle Server is built on a state-of-the-art Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance with the built-in game development framework and a unique redundant configuration to distribute the load, enabling up to 300 simultaneous co-op players.
③Game Servers: Six Other Servers (App, Chat, Party, Notify, Tool, and GvG) (* Except Battle)
The six other servers (App, Chat, Party, Notify, Tool, and GvG) are containerized using Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK).
④Data InfrastructureVarious game data (including play information) is stored in ApsaraDB PolarDB for MySQL. From the container service, logs are linked to Log Service by simply specifying at the time of cluster creation. Furthermore, data is linked from Log Service to AnalyticDB for MySQL, a database for analysis. Finally, it is used as a data analysis platform for BI tools.
Almost all processes on Alibaba Cloud from container → log collection/analysis → data analysis infrastructure can be configured automatically by operating the console screen.
Notice: ApsaraDB for Redis and Tair have been merged and renamed to Tair (Redis® OSS-compatible) since September 2024.
Looking Forward
enish looks forward to expanding its data analysis and visualization infrastructure with Alibaba Cloud, focusing on Quick BI. Quick BI is a tool that enables interactive analysis, searching, and reporting of large volumes of data will accelerate data-oriented decision-making and contribute to the provision of better-quality services.
Snapshot
"Successfully leveraged advanced public cloud technology to ensure stable operation of large-scale gaming systems."
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