"As the availability of affordable broadband connections has driven the proliferation of online gaming portals, gaming companies are faced with the dual challenge of supporting hundreds of thousands of subscribers while providing the same reliability expected from offline console games," said Andrew Feldman, vice president of marketing for Force10 Networks. "By combining leading density and resiliency, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series provides an ideal solution that not only delivers predictable, stable network performance but also enables seamless scalability to accommodate rapid subscriber growth."
The unique combination of leading density and resiliency in the Force10 TeraScale E-Series enables online gaming companies to cost effectively build out the scalable and reliable infrastructures they require to support complex, interactive worlds and add capacity as needed. Supporting 1,260 Gigabit and 224 Ten Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single system, the TeraScale E-Series simplifies the online gaming network while reducing capital and operational expenditures.
In South Korea, where more than 15 million people, or 30 percent of the population, are registered for online gaming, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series anchors the networks of the country's leading online gaming companies.
Leveraging the high density and resiliency of the Force10 TeraScale E-Series, NCsoft, South Korea's largest online gaming company, built out an advanced gaming infrastructure to support its existing games as well as a testing bed for developing new ones. The resiliency of the TeraScale E-Series allows NCsoft to build into its online worlds a greater level of flexibility, providing users with a more interactive gaming experience.
South Korea's largest online gaming portal, Nexon, has also deployed the Force10 TeraScale E-Series to support 130 million visitors each month and bring reliable, predictable performance to its gaming service. With the TeraScale E-Series, Nexon is upgrading its network to 10 Gigabit Ethernet to support a rapidly growing number of subscribers and game titles. Additionally, the resiliency of the TeraScale E-Series provides the network stability Nexon requires to ensure 24x7 availability for its worldwide gamers.
South Korean entertainment portal Neowiz is using the Force10 TeraScale E-Series at the foundation of its network to support more than 20 million subscribers. Included among its entertainment services are more than 40 online games, which support millions of simultaneous users. The high 10 Gigabit Ethernet density of the TeraScale E-Series provides Neowiz with the capacity it needs at the core of its data center network to support a rapidly growing subscriber base while the high Gigabit Ethernet density enables the online gaming company to aggregate the thousands of servers supporting its games and services without complicating the network.
In Japan, video game pioneer SEGA has created the reliability of a console game in its online worlds with the Force10 TeraScale E-Series. The high density and resiliency of the TeraScale E-Series allowed SEGA to move from separate networks for each game to a scalable, consolidated network. Additionally, the robust Layer 2 and Layer 3 support of the TeraScale E-Series enabled SEGA to both aggregate hundreds of servers and peer directly with service providers in a single network layer.
The three CPU architecture of the Force10 TeraScale E-Series delivers the reliability and resiliency online gaming companies require to ensure a high quality experience that is akin to that of offline console games. By dividing switching, routing and management functionality between three independent processors, the TeraScale E-Series brings to online gaming networks the fault tolerant infrastructure that can support multiple interactive worlds and millions of users players in multiple online worlds.
According to research firm DFC Intelligence, the global market for online game subscriptions, downloads and advertising is forecast to grow from $3.4 billion in 2005 to $13 billion in 2011.