ACADEMIA

Internap Network Services Corporation announced that CipSoft GmbH, a German developer of online games, is leveraging Internap's Managed Hosting service and global, route-optimized Performance IP network to support its growing player base in the Americas and EMEA.

CipSoft introduced one of the world's first graphical massively multi-player online role playing games (MMORPG), Tibia, in 1997. With more than 300,000 active players today, Tibia ranks among Europe's most successful online games. CipSoft also offers TibiaME, the first MMORPG for mobile phones.The company is among a global group of game developers poised to benefit from the industry's rapid growth. According to Gartner Research, worldwide game-related spending will reach $112 billion by 2015. Online gaming currently accounts for $11.8 billion of gaming spend and is expected to grow to $28 billion by 2015 as people buy more virtual goods and digital subscriptions to games.

With thousands of players signing up to play Tibia daily, CipSoft needed a provider that could optimize the performance and availability of its online games for its loyal fan base from local points of presence. CipSoft required a scalable infrastructure that could seamlessly meet new demand, whether organic or driven by heavy spikes in traffic due to bi-annual game updates. The company opted to move from a colocation environment to a managed hosting solution to minimize the time and resources spent managing its infrastructure. They chose Internap's Managed Hosting solution and IP service, backed by a 100% uptime SLA and geographically distributed hosting facilities in Atlanta and London to service its growing global player base in Latin America and EMEA.

"As an online gaming provider, connectivity is the foundation of our business, so it is critical that we have a reliable network infrastructure in place that ensures maximum application uptime," said Falk Feuersenger, lead system administrator for CipSoft. "Internap's global Performance IP network offers solid network performance, and its strategically located managed hosting facilities enable us to deliver a consistent, high-quality gaming experience wherever our customers are located. Without infrastructure headaches, we are free to focus our energy on what we do best--game development."

Internap provides services to nearly one third of the 25 largest gaming companies in the world through its intelligent IT Infrastructure offering, including enterprise IP, CDN, colocation, managed hosting and cloud solutions. Internap's customers span the entire gaming ecosystem, ranging from publishers such as Hi-Rez Studios and Sigster to online retailer GamersGate and the leading VoIP service for gamers, TypeFrag.

"Our integrated hosting and connectivity solutions are increasingly popular with game developers looking to deliver a scalable, low latency online gaming experience for players anywhere in the world," said Paul Carmody, senior vice president of product management and business development at Internap. "With our IT Infrastructure solutions, CipSoft is able to create industry-leading games while we ensure an incredible end-user experience."