NETSCOUT > Case Studies > Maintaining A Quality On-line Gaming Experience Depends on Cost-effective Visibility from NETSCOUT for Service Assurance and Security Monitoring

Maintaining A Quality On-line Gaming Experience Depends on Cost-effective Visibility from NETSCOUT for Service Assurance and Security Monitoring

Company Size

1,000+

Region

America
Asia

Country

United States

Product

nGenius® 5000 series packet flow switch
NETSCOUT® service assurance solutions

Tech Stack

Packet Flow Switching

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software

Applicable Industries

Consumer Goods

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

The customer is a North America-based online gaming company that has developed and published some of the world’s most widely used and recognized multi-player, online, computer games. They have thousands of employees operating in several offices, globally supporting every aspect of the gaming experience, from development, to the customer-facing network, to live arena events. With more than 20 years of experience, the company has earned an unparalleled reputation for its innovative, creative, and immersive gaming experiences.

The Challenge

The gaming company was opening a new international facility in Asia and anticipated the need for visibility into the traffic throughout the network of this facility. The company aimed to provide a high-quality user experience for its gamers by monitoring the performance of services in each facility to stay ahead of emerging issues. However, the packet broker technology that had been deployed in other offices had become prohibitively expensive. The capital cost for these hardware-based units was much more costly than comparable software models, and even the maintenance costs on the legacy units were becoming exorbitant.

The Solution

After a thorough evaluation of existing and new packet broker options, the director of network architecture and operations selected the nGenius 5000 series packet flow switch. The nGenius 5000 PFS stood out because NETSCOUT offered it as a software version, which provided a far more cost-effective option than competitive alternatives. Ongoing maintenance costs were also lower as a result. Operating at speeds up to 100 Gbps, the nGenius 5100 PFS scales to the needs of the world’s largest enterprise, government, and service provider networks. As the traffic grew in this new data center, the company’s network architects were confident that it would meet their expanding needs. The nGenius 5100 Packet Flow Switch has become the standard option for subsequent deployments and upgrades, including the most recent deployment in a primary US data center.

Operational Impact

The company is gaining several post-implementation benefits with the nGenius 5100 packet flow switch. The most obvious benefit is a modern, software-based, feature-rich, packet flow switch that is both cost-effective to purchase and maintain.
This is better for both their capital expense and operating expense planning and budgets long term, as they look forward to deployments at new locations and upgrades of existing outdated switches.
The other benefit is reduced complexity and long-term costs by consolidating vendors. NETSCOUT is IT’s solution of choice for performance management and service assurance, as well as packet flow switching.
Reducing issues and costs, otherwise associated with multiple IT providers, makes collaboration and seamless implementations possible for this pioneer in gaming.
And it gives the IT staff more time to stay focused on their company’s core line of business – delivering quality gaming experiences to customers!