Zenium Predicts Turkish Online Gaming Trend Will Drive Up Data Center Demands

Data center location critical to increasing gamer satisfaction 

Zenium has announced that it expects the buoyant online gaming industry in Turkey to significantly impact data center demand at its Istanbul One data center.  Reporting strong interest from the gaming market, Zenium predicts that enhanced connectivity, high density power and latency levels will be needed to support the growing number of online gamers in the region. It expects that these requirements will convince the gaming sector to outsource data center requirements as they seek highly resilient infrastructure in order to stay competitive. 

“The online gaming industry in Turkey is on the cusp of major expansion both in terms of the number of gamers and the number of games publishers coming into the market,” said Aslıhan Güreşcier, Zenium’s Country Manager in Turkey.  “Ensuring that the right data center infrastructure is available to support product development and testing, through to large scale on-demand delivery, will be critical to the future success of these businesses.” 

Widespread use of the Internet in Turkey has led to 54 percent of Internet users enjoying online gaming according to the Turkish Game Developers’ Association, delivering $464 million in revenue in 2015 alone. The growing popularity of smart phones, 4G and mobile gaming is also expected to increase the total number of Turkish gamers well beyond the current level of 22.5 million. In parallel, predicted growth in the mobile phone market in the Middle East, and the corresponding increase in online gamers seeking a seamless experience, is expected to not only provide an additional source of revenue for Turkish online game publishers but it also increases the requirement for highly available, resilient and scalable data center environments. 

“The ability to provide an uninterrupted online experience is the number one priority for games publishers,” commented Güreşcier. “The emphasis is on reducing delay and unacceptable levels of lag for mobile and massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs) and it is critical that this is achieved.  Further investments in existing data centers can be expensive and time consuming and are often too complex to easily scale again in the future, which is why outsourcing becomes an attractive option to the business.” 

End user proximity to the data center hosting the game is part of the overall solution as it helps to minimise latency issues caused by distance alone. As a result, the location of Istanbul One is a key component for consideration to those preparing to outsource.  Of equal importance is the ability to scale on-demand to meet fluctuating and unpredictable user numbers resulting from the move from subscription based games to a free-to-play monetisation model in which MMOs sell services in-game.  

“Istanbul One’s Tier III resilience guarantees high availability and reliability of service – both of which are essential elements for keen gamers that expect immediate, responsive, online access and who regard guaranteed game continuity as a ‘must have’ capability,” concluded Güreşcier. “Its ability to meet the high density power requirements of the online gaming industry – supporting racks drawing as much as 10kW or more – will also be critical for business success in the long term.”