Enhancing Gaming Operations: Group GA's Cloud Migration to AWS

In the fast-evolving gaming industry, scalability, security, and operational efficiency are key to maintaining a competitive edge. Group GA, a prominent provider of web-based gaming solutions, recognized the need to modernize its infrastructure to meet growing customer demands and support its expanding portfolio.

To achieve this, Group GA embarked on a comprehensive cloud migration journey, transitioning its workloads to Amazon Web Services (AWS). This strategic move was aimed at improving application scalability, enhancing high availability, and maintaining rigorous security standards. Partnering with PCG, Group GA successfully navigated this transformation, laying a strong foundation for future growth and innovation.

Group GA is a well-established player in the gaming industry, known for delivering high-quality web-based gaming experiences. The company specializes in creating innovative gaming solutions that engage a global audience. With a commitment to excellence, Group GA continually seeks ways to enhance its operational capabilities and maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly changing market. By adopting advanced technologies and investing in a strong infrastructure, Group GA has positioned itself to deliver exceptional gaming experiences to its customers.

Group GA's rapid growth in the gaming industry exposed significant limitations within its on-premises infrastructure. As customer demand surged, the company faced critical technical challenges that threatened its ability to scale operations efficiently. The existing setup lacked the necessary flexibility to handle fluctuating workloads, leading to performance bottlenecks and reduced operational agility.

• Scalability Constraints: The infrastructure could not scale dynamically, resulting in inadequate resource allocation during peak gaming periods.
• Operational Inefficiency: Manual management of resources and updates slowed down operations, increasing the risk of downtime and reducing the team's ability to innovate.
• High Availability and Disaster Recovery: Ensuring continuous uptime and rapid disaster recovery was complex, with the current setup offering limited support for multi-availability zone architectures.
• Security Vulnerabilities: Protecting sensitive player data and maintaining compliance with stringent industry regulations was increasingly difficult, as security protocols became outdated and harder to manage in-house.

In addition to these technical challenges, Group GA also aimed to achieve several business objectives critical to their long-term success:

• Enhancing Customer Experience: Deliver a smooth and responsive gaming experience by ensuring infrastructure can automatically scale and maintain high availability.
• Cost Optimization: Reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by transitioning to a cloud-based pricing model aligned with actual usage.
• Compliance and Security: Maintain industry regulations and safeguard user data.

These challenges underscored the need for a strategic migration to a scalable, secure, and efficient cloud environment, prompting Group GA to partner with PCG for a comprehensive AWS migration.

To address these challenges, Group GA partnered with Public Cloud Group to design and implement a comprehensive cloud migration strategy centered around AWS. The solution was divided into several key phases:

• Cloud Foundation: A fully functional, enterprise-grade scalable AWS Landing Zone (LZ) was designed and implemented, integrating smoothly with Group GA's existing IT ecosystem. This provided a well-architected, multi-account environment with strict security, operations, and compliance rules. Key tasks included setting up automated resources, configuring network routes, and implementing ingress and egress solutions.
• MySQL Rehosting: The MySQL database was rehosted into AWS EC2 instances, with a focus on ensuring high availability through a multi-availability zone setup. This phase involved a thorough review of the current database architecture, assessing data sources, and defining the end-state architecture, including disaster recovery requirements.
• Application Replatforming: Several of Group GA’s core applications were replatformed onto Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service), enabling better scalability and resource management. This phase included setting up horizontal and cluster autoscaling, as well as defining a new CI/CD pipeline to support the replatformed workloads.

The adoption of system of best practices, including the AWS Well-Architected Framework (WAF), was a critical component in guiding the design and implementation phases of this migration. By applying the WAF principles, PCG ensured that the architecture would not only meet immediate operational needs but also align with best practices for security, reliability, and cost management.

The framework’s structured approach also helps to systematically evaluate the infrastructure, address potential risks, and build a resilient cloud environment capable of supporting Group GA’s evolving business requirements. This methodical process allowed for a balanced trade-off between innovation and control, laying the groundwork for sustainable growth and future scalability.

The cloud migration project delivered significant benefits to Group GA:

• Scalability: Group GA can now scale its infrastructure dynamically to handle variable loads, ensuring optimal performance during peak gaming periods.
• High Availability: The multi-availability zone setup for MySQL and other critical services has enhanced the resilience of Group GA's applications, and in the process minimizing downtime and improving user experience.
• Cost Efficiency: By migrating to AWS, Group GA has optimized its infrastructure costs, paying only for the resources used while benefiting from AWS's flexible pricing models.
• Security and Compliance: The new cloud environment adheres to the highest security standards, with strong access controls, encryption, and compliance with industry regulations.
• Operational Efficiency: The automation of resource provisioning and improved monitoring capabilities have reduced the operational burden on Group GA's IT team, allowing them to focus on innovation and strategic initiatives.

Beyond these core improvements, the migration to AWS provided Group GA with several key business advantages:

• Reduced Operational Costs: The transition to AWS’s flexible pricing models has significantly reduced capital expenditure, allowing the reallocation of resources to other strategic initiatives.
• Improved User Experience: Enhanced scalability and high availability have resulted in a more reliable gaming experience, leading to increased customer satisfaction and higher retention rates.
• Competitive Advantage: The ability to quickly scale and innovate positions Group GA ahead of competitors, enabling faster time-to-market for new features and greater adaptability to industry trends.

Conclusion

Group GA's AWS cloud migration project was a resounding success, resulting in a more scalable, cost-effective, and secure infrastructure. By partnering with Public Cloud Group, Group GA has not only addressed its immediate operational challenges but has also laid a strong foundation for future growth and innovation. This case study highlights the importance of careful planning, comprehensive documentation, and ongoing stakeholder engagement in achieving successful cloud migrations.

Public Cloud Group (PCG) supports companies in their digital transformation through the use of public cloud solutions.

With a product portfolio designed to accompany organisations of all sizes in their cloud journey and competence that is a synonym for highly qualified staff that clients and partners like to work with, PCG is positioned as a reliable and trustworthy partner for the hyperscalers, relevant and with repeatedly validated competence and credibility.

We have the highest partnership status with the three relevant hyperscalers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft. As experienced providers, we advise our customers independently with cloud implementation, application development, and managed services.