To dig a little deeper, you must realize that most browsers and online games are tested (A/B) throughout their lifetime in order to stay on top of the leaderboard, and the modern worldwide gaming audience logs in from a number of different platforms – including PCs, mobiles, tablets, and televisions.

It’s well-known amongst the online gaming community that choosing a good network is crucial – not only for a positive user experience, but also for your budget. For the game developer, having a stable, low latency backbone allows you to sleep peacefully at night. Being able to service a worldwide audience from just a few selected locations saves money, while giving you the freedom to react to whichever audience eventually adopts your game.

The web already has a lot of great sources on how to build a new platform so we’ve decided to share some of them.

Increasing performance and player satisfaction will increase the value of your game and ultimately your company, resulting in a higher DAU/MAU. However, measuring these statistics is a full time job of its own and we’re sure you would rather spend time on your core business! A good example of a tool that could speed up this process is Photon, a cloud based network engine. The brilliant research blog ‘Highscalability’ and the latest article by Rob Hawkes (Technical Evangelist from Mozilla) about web standards for the upcoming years will also help by giving you the latest insight around architectural challenges. Combine all this information with the generic stock of your hosting provider and you will definitely keep the costs low, allowing you to be lean and mean!

It’s also important to involve a hosting provider as early as possible. Sharing your design and finding out whether your hosting provider fits your development needs, saves you valuable time. What’s more, choosing a provider which makes it easy to move and combine different product lines such as dedicated servers, cloud and CDN will give you the opportunity to automate and to be (even more!) successful.
Questions? Get in touch with us , we’re always happy to help

                          

There are also a few challenges facing the F2P model. For instance, a game might not bring in a lot of revenue from the get-go, taking a bit of time to get to full steam. Also, the amount of players are far harder to project, since people can come and go more freely. After all, they are not paying a monthly fee. The question then becomes: how can you manage your infrastructure in the most cost efficient way?

If you opt for colocation and choose to set up a hosting infrastructure yourself, you have to buy enough servers to handle peak amounts of players and traffic. But what if outside of those peak moments only half of your infrastructure is utilized? The other half would be just sitting there, gathering dust. Or what if you have too few servers, making the game unplayable? Colocating your own hosting infrastructure can be a cost efficient solution, but as we’ve examined in previous blogs, might initially be a bit too costly. So, how can you combat this and be cost efficient as a business?

Usually, you have two options as an online gaming company: a dedicated environment, or a shared environment. A dedicated server environment with private racks offers the most reliable performance. However, this not the most scalable solution when compared to a shared environment such as a Cloud. On the other hand, shared environments are as reliable as dedicated servers.

Let’s take a look at how one of our newest clients, Hi-Rez studios, handled this. Hi-rez studios is the creator of the aforementioned Tribes: Ascend, which has been met with critical acclaim. This is a trailer for the game:

Did you see how the players jump, float and skid around the environment? The sensation of speed is such an important part of the player experience that it is critical to prevent any lag from occurring. The F2P nature of the game however means that the amount of online players playing at the same time can fluctuate greatly.

While researching their ideal hosting infrastructure, Hi-rez found that a shared environment was too unstable for their game. So Hi-rez wanted to go with the higher performance option: dedicated servers. However, the F2P nature of Tribes: ascend still required good scalability.

We started with the basics. Thanks to an extensive open beta phase Hi-Rez knew the average data capacity they required, so we made sure they would always have a certain amount of servers running at maximum uptime.

Once Hi-Rez expects a need for extra capacity, they order additional servers with contracts on a monthly or quarterly basis, which LeaseWeb can usually deploy in less than 24 hours. Once the need for extra capacity has passed, Hi-Rez can drop these servers again without a hitch. This is a much more economical solution to ensure they don’t have unnecessary infrastructure. At same time, Hi-rez (and their players!) can still enjoy the maximum uptime and smooth gameplay a dedicated server environment offers.

The moral of the story is that different needs require different solutions, as the F2P model clearly demonstrates. In this case, the most important questions you will face are: “How do I balance performance vs. scalability?” and “How do I get the most cost efficient solution?” LeaseWeb is currently helping countless (online gaming) companies solve these questions by building the best infrastructure for their company. If you would like to know more, just email us at sales@leaseweb.com.

Paul Grimwood is a Global Business Development Manager at LeaseWeb, specializing in Online Gaming, including MMOs , social gaming and online gaming platforms. You can often find Paul at large gaming events like E3, GDC and Game Connection. You can reach Paul through p.grimwood@leaseweb.com.

                          

Our entrepreneurial DNA combined with a good taste for an adventure and some solid partnerships brought LeaseWeb USA, Inc. to launch right to the East coast in the Powerloft datacenter located in Manassas, Virginia.

Our first step in the land of the free and home of the brave has been nothing but exciting, over the last year and a half we grew into over 3,000 servers and each month breaks the last record for new orders.

In the next few months you’ll be reading a lot about our activity and the partners we’re working with, but what I really want to start off with is the introduction of the LeaseWeb USA, Inc. team and our US Headquarters in Manassas.

When we first got the space it looked somewhat like a maze with the many cubicles I was here for a few days and we make this sketch of how we wanted it to look like (our hosting skills are better than our drawing skills, promise)

We really wanted an open space and that clean look, and together with the Account Managers, Business Developers and Provision and Support Engineers we worked as one big team to design, install and fine tune the office, have a look at what we did:

We would love to welcome you to our family, if you’re ever in the area please drop by for a data center tour and a delicious fruit smoothie at our office!

Keren Rubenstein
Sales Manager LeaseWeb USA, Inc.

P.S.
Anything specific you would like us to write about our US presence? Email keren (at) leaseweb.com

                          

On Sunday night the group gathered in the bar at Brasserie Harkema for drinks, followed by dinner. During dinner we handed out orange hats and hoodies and explained to our guests why we all dress in orange to celebrate the Queen’s birthday: it’s very simple; the Queen’s last name is ’orange’!  Everybody happily dressed up and we drew quite a bit of attention in our orange gear.

After dinner we walked to the boat for a two hour tour of the Amsterdam canals. There is no better way to see the sights of Amsterdam and take in the special, festive atmosphere of the city. On the water we met a lot of people in orange decorated boats and everybody greeted each other, creating a magical atmosphere!

From the water we could see people standing outside cafés partying, there were open air concerts and dance parties on the shore and people dressed in orange everywhere. Everybody was in a very good mood, helped by the fact that the weather was finally improving to reflect Spring.

Onboard we enjoyed drinks and snacks, great music, good laughs and the views from the boat. Meanwhile we ‘educated’ our international guests on how to celebrate Queen’s night and day and where to go for the best music, food and bargains. We left the boat at Nieuwmarkt and joined a party there.  On stage was a very glitzy disco band, we saw some great disco moves from our guests. This is where we left them to discover how the Dutch celebrate Queen’s Night and Day for themselves….

                          

Hi, I’m Lawton Cheney and I am LeaseWeb USA’s new vice president of Business Development writing to you from our offices here in Manassas, Virginia – a short drive from Washington DC and from where I grew up in Maryland. As I began my commute to the office on my first day, I saw the neighborhood kids waiting at the same bus stop I used to go to.  To give you an idea of how long ago that is, the Washington Redskins were at the very top of pro football in those days.

When I started working for LeaseWeb a few years back, my initial project was to penetrate the Spanish market across all viable segments and after that I covered a lot of ground for the company on a global level.  I learned a lot about what hosting clients are looking for and where LeaseWeb can make a great difference.

An important part of my new role will be to help our new business development team to not repeat the mistakes I made in my first year.  Our business development tactics and LeaseWeb capabilities are so much more robust today – I am really looking forward to finding the optimal mix of European and American applications to create our “secret sauce” for year 2012.

We’ve got a great crew at LeaseWeb USA with a nice mix of professional backgrounds.  The provisioning and support guys have things very much under control and have even developed some organizational tricks during the process that they are now sharing back with headquarters in Holland.

Our Account Manager team has a lot of hosting industry experience and they were rarin’ to go with some clever biz dev ideas to accelerate our growth here in the U.S.  Happily we are picking up those ideas right away because I was joined yesterday by two new Business Development Managers.

Boot camp for our USA business development team started yesterday – watch out America, here we come!

                          

It’s true, we’re all so involved with whatever it is we’re doing, literally running sometimes day and night to meet deadlines. From my point of view, you really need to be smart about striking a balance between meeting those deadlines, while still taking your time to be creative to bring that extra something into your work.

I find the best way to do so is by team work – and I mean that in the broadest sense. Point in case: I was asked one day to bring in some new ideas for our Self Service Center (SSC), but I was just too preoccupied with the unread emails in my inbox, flights between different continents and three large projects I was running. I didn’t have time to sit back and be creative, so I decided I needed some help.

It started as an exciting experiment. I was looking for someone fresh that was not involved with our systems 24/7, someone that uses our SSC on a regular basis, knows our products inside out and most of all: would like to enrich the SSC with new features. So who matches that description? Our customers of course!

Twitter was without a doubt the best tool out there for this assignment. So the very day the idea hit me to crowdsource for inspiration, I tweeted the following on the @LeaseWeb channel:

“Give us some cool ideas for our Self Service Center features! Best one wins a (super cool) LeaseWeb helicopter! RT!”

A LeaseWeb helicopter

It didn’t take long before I had some amazing suggestions come in, such as:

• Buying new services through the customer portal
• Domain transfers automated with authorization codes
• More detailed network information per server
• Full IPv6 management
• Real-time streaming bandwidth graph
• Detailed statistics

We received so many good suggestions, we actually added a total of 30 new feature requests to our list! But there was one feature we liked the most, which was submitted by @johanbeckers:

“@LeaseWeb Mobile version (Android preferred :p ) with possibility to reboot servers on the road :) #SSC”

We loved it so much that we’ve already have developers working on it and I can’t wait to introduce it to you! For his winning idea, Johan Beckers won the LeaseWeb helicopter. He already told us his kids are having a lot of fun with it!

The rest of our customers who tweeted great suggestions got a small ‘thank you’ note from us, which were shipped all over the world:

A small 'thank you'

So thank you for helping me bring in some great new ideas and for being such great team players. And if you’re not already doing so, be sure to follow us on @LeaseWeb to become part of our global team!

Kind regards,

Keren Rubenstein
Sales Manager LeaseWeb USA

                          

StopBadware is a nonprofit anti-malware organization that coordinates and brings together stakeholders throughout the internet ecosystem. StopBadware’s presence is growing across the globe, especially in Europe where several major internet hubs are located. By uniting the industry, StopBadware intends to create a common, transparent view on dealing with issues associated with all types of malware.

The relationship with StopBadware is the latest step in LeaseWeb’s Community Outreach Project, offering free servers and bandwidth in support of organizations that monitor, identify and combat the sources of spam and cybercrime. LeaseWeb is helping StopBadware to explore ways to expand capacity for aggregating and sharing data relating to malware on the web. LeaseWeb is the first European hosting provider to provide StopBadware with infrastructure support, delivering high-end dedicated servers to the non-profit organization.

In addition, LeaseWeb is a member of the StopBadware Partners Forum; an ongoing series of dedicated expert discussions to discuss and advance StopBadware projects, share experience and identify new ways to combat threats.

Maxim Weinstein, President & Executive Director of StopBadware, said: “LeaseWeb has been invaluable in providing us with free support and giving StopBadware and its partners an understanding of differences in the constraints and environment of hosting providers operating in Europe. This expertise will really help us to make this a collective, global effort to fight crime on the Web.”

Alex De Joode, Security Officer, LeaseWeb, added: “The overall objective of our Community Outreach Program is to make the internet a safer place for all users. Non-profit organizations often have very few resources to work with, so we see it as a benefit to our customers and their users to support initiatives like StopBadware. With the insight and data that StopBadware can provide, LeaseWeb can pro-actively take steps to quickly identify the sources of potentially harmful online activity. This concept of collaboration and collective spirit is one that we endorse in helping to make the Web safer.”

                          

The Hoogvliegers Foundation (Stichting Hoogvliegers) gives terminally and/or chronically ill and handicapped children a wonderful experience by letting them fly in an airplane. They do this by organizing special ‘Hoogvlieger days’. LeaseWeb sponsored the most recent Hoogvliegers day, taking care of food and lemonade for the children and even flying them around in an airplane.

It started when the kids were picked up by massive trucks and driven to Lelystad Airport. The merry convoy was escorted all the way to the airport by fire trucks and the police, who let loose with blaring sirens and lights! That alone was already a big adventure for most of the kids.

Exploring one of the fire trucks that escorted the children to Lelystad Airport

Upon entering the airport the kids registered at the LeaseWeb hangar, where they were given a number. When the number was put up on a sign, it was their turn to go up in the air. In the meantime, there were many different activities to participate in, such as exploring the inside of an air ambulance helicopter or helping the fire brigade put out fires. There were also various airplanes on display. And if the children were a bit too excited, clown Okidoki did his best to ease their nerves and make them laugh.

Clown Okidoki entertaining the children

Once it was somebody’s turn to fly, they were picked up by the pilot and taken to the plane. If possible mom or dad would also come along. The pilot explained how everything worked inside the aircraft and take off. Once in the air, every child got to fly the plane for a while! This earned them a Hoogvliegers flying certificate, awarded to every child when they landed.

Photo by Arnoud Raeven

Of course, we wanted to make the memory of the day last as long as possible, so we gave every kid a LeaseWeb kite and cap to take home with them. At the end of the day, everyone (kids, parents, volunteers) had a huge smile on their face. All in all, it was a great success, and we look forward to the next Hoogvliegers Day!

One of the LeaseWeb kites

If you would like to know more about the fantastic initiative called the Hoogvliegers Foundation, be sure to visit their website (only available in Dutch).
LeaseWeb often participates in various activities for non-profit organizations. If you want to know more about our Corporate Social Responsibility Program, take a look here.

                          

We want to offer the best possible service and performance, which is why we’re making a small adjustment. As of today, we have removed the option to order Plesk control panels on the S (smallest) Cloud instances. While Plesk is a great product to help you manage your instance, it requires quite a bit of capacity to run smoothly. The M and larger instances are much better suited to run this kind of control panel, and we will continue to offer Plesk on those types of instances.

If you haven’t tried our Express Cloud yet, now is the time. Since the start of the new Express Cloud platform, we have been offering an introductory discount. This discount lasts until you cancel the instance, making it a fantastic deal. The offer will expire on Monday 16 April at midnight (CET) – so if you would like to take advantage of it you’d better hurry. I promise you will like the LeaseWeb Cloud, especially since we will be releasing new, interesting features in the near future!

                          

Updated graphical interface
Based on various usability tests, we’ve adjusted the visual design. Some changes are small, some are larger, but they should all help make navigating the SSC a breeze.

The most noteworthy change is the streamlining of the menus. The top now displays the various services LeaseWeb offers, split into four groups: Dedicated Servers, Cloud Servers, Colocation and Domains. We’ve also added a sitemap below, so you can instantly jump to whatever section you’d like.

In addition to the visual update, we deployed a couple of other features as well.

Mass change reverse lookups for existing services
Every IP address provided by LeaseWeb comes with our default Reverse lookup (hosted-by.leaseweb.com). You could already change this for each IP individually, but now it’s also possible to change multiple or even all Reverse lookups at once through a mass update.

Export your services to a XML or CSV file
With one click you can export an overview of all the services you currently have at LeaseWeb, together with price and contract information.

So what do you think of the visual overhaul? We’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions!