How do F1 teams stay connected with their international fan base? Some of the challenges Sahara Force India faced when creating a new website included integrating social media and providing real-time video, news and information. As a key competitor on the Formula One racing circuit that includes 20 races across four continents, they pride themselves on being a global team with a worldwide fan base. And, they pride themselves on performance, both on and off the circuit.

Naturally, Sahara Force India wanted their website to perform quickly and reliably, even during unpredictable traffic spikes on race weekends when fans are anxious for the latest happenings. So, the team seamlessly migrated to Internap’s hosting platform and streamlined communication with fans through a single web site portal.

Learn more about how SFI drives fan loyalty and stays competitive with a high-speed, scalable IT Infrastructure.

Recently, the Finance team from Internap had the opportunity to spend time volunteering with the Atlanta Toys for Tots organization. The primary goal of Toys for Tots is: “To deliver, through a new toy at Christmas, a message of hope to less fortunate youngsters that will assist them in becoming responsible, productive, patriotic citizens.”

Volunteering with an organization that focuses on toys and children sounded like a fun way to spend an afternoon.  But the Internap team quickly realized that the amount of work required to provide 1 million toys at Christmas was an enormous undertaking. In a warehouse filled with an overwhelming number of items, toys were sorted into appropriate age groups. Our volunteers performed tasks in organized, easy-to-follow segments, and it was simple to jump right in and focus on getting things done.

Most people are familiar with Toys for Tots through the images of the Marines handing out toys to children on TV, but the opportunity to participate first-hand in the hard work that takes place behind the scenes made us more appreciative of this ambitious organization.  The experience also offered the chance for peers and coworkers to come together and support a larger charitable cause.

Everyone worked hard to sort and pack thousands of toys, and by the end of the day, the group was tired. But it was a humbling experience for the volunteers, knowing that their efforts can send a message of hope to a child this holiday season.

For more information on how to donate or volunteer, please visit Toys for Tots.org.

Yes, it’s that time of year. The tree is up, the stockings are hung and holiday music fills my house. We have all the standards playing – Winter Wonderland, Jingle Bell Rock, Santa Claus is coming to Town – you get the idea, and I can’t get them out of my head. I suppose belting out the Glee version of “We Need a Little Christmas” during a meeting could be counter-productive, but luckily I work with an indulgent crew who themselves are now humming it nonstop.

With all this holiday music getting mashed up in my head along with 2013 planning on my mind, I began to imagine the gifts that Internap could wrap and put under your proverbial IT Infrastructure tree. Consider it the IT version of sugarplums dancing in my head. So indulge me a little more as I end the year with my version of a holiday classic – IT Infrastructure style.

Sing to the tune of the 12 Days of Christmas, and start each verse with the following: “On the first (second, third, etc.) day of Christmas IT Santa gave to me.”

On the first day of Christmas, IT Santa gave to me – A powerful Performance IP.
Day 2 – Two redundant NOCs
Day 3 – Three CDNs
Day 4 – Four remote hands
Day 5 – Five Agile Clouds
Day 6 – Route performance tracking
Day 7 – Best-in-class support
Day 8 – Colocation service
Day 9 – P-NAP architecture
Day 10 – Private cloud solutions
Day 11 – Dedicated hosting
Day 12 – Web acceleration

Watch the full video

No Santas, elves or members of the Internap marketing team were harmed in the making of this video. Happy holidays!

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a big jump in the number of free-to-play games we support. Hi-Rez Studio’s Global Agenda was one of the first MMOs to move to free-to-play in 2010. Their next gen shooter, Tribes Ascend and battle arena, SMITE are two more examples that are shaping up to be enormously popular non-subscription based games.

In this increasingly free-to-play world, the ability to add seasonal content to games represents a golden opportunity for gaming companies to drive incremental revenue this holiday season. Adding out of the ordinary but functional items can be a good way to drive one-off purchase transactions, while allowing players to be unique and stand out in their virtual environments. For example, rather than using my default two-handed axe in Infinity Blade 2, I can buy a gigantic golf driver (Big Bertha?) to smash the surprisingly fragile bodies of orcs, giants, and witches.

Before we get into some specific in-game ideas, let’s review some economics companies like Hi-Rez consider as they build and maintain their free-to-play games.

The Economics of Free-to-play Online Games
In the free-to-play world, there are essentially three direct drivers of revenue:

• Daily Active Users (DAUs) – DAUs are the average number of unique users actively playing the game in a day. There are many variations of this metric – MAUs (monthly active users), MUUs (monthly unique users), MUPs (monthly unique payers), “Stickiness” or DAUs/MAUs, which measures what proportion of users come back every day to play, and the list goes on.
• Conversion Rate – this is the number of active payers as a percentage of active users.
• Average Revenue Per Paying User (ARPPU) – revenue brought in per paying user.

Above all else, consider that players won’t buy items in a game that they don’t care about – i.e., not only does the game need to be interesting and fun, but players also need time to get into the game. At GDC Online this October, Emily Greer, the COO of Kongregate, stressed the point by saying that they only saw single-player conversion rates move up meaningfully after seven or so gameplays in their browser-based universe. Multiplayer upticks took even longer.

We’ve taken a shot at building a basic forecast model with these metrics (and a few more) for you to play around with if you’re thinking about starting your own F2P game or building out a forecasting model. Let us know if you think we can tweak this to make it work better.

In-game Purchase Ideas
Now with the economics out of the way, here are some interesting ideas we’ve found some online gaming companies using to drive free-to-play cheer this holiday season:
• Adorn your 30-ton BattleMech with Christmas lights
• Zynga’s virtual goods = real-world charitable gifts campaign
• Rift’s Fae Yule quest offers up some nice holiday gifts
• Protect your Stronghold Kingdom villages when you go on vacation this holiday
• Star Trek Online lets you fight snowmen in Q’s winter wonderland
• Bingo Blitz has a Winter Wonderland Slots Room that’s very nice

I also polled Internap’s marketing team (and Bindu’s League of Legends fanatic – thanks Spencer!) for some additional holiday ideas to pass along. We promise we won’t claim intellectual property rights if you decide to use any of these gems:
• Beat back a Black Friday zombie hoard
• Join a Workshop-Elf hero unit
• Drink an Egg Nog Health Potion
• Mull your own Creeper
• Santa Nautilus
• Gift-wrap Mob Drops
• Wield Furby-adorned Heavy Clubs

What are your ideas for driving revenue during the holiday season? For more insights on the online gaming industry, check out our ebook, and may your micro-transactions be merry and bright!

In the interest of providing the best performance and support available, we’ve made the decision to decommission several legacy Flow Control Platform (FCP and FCR) network appliances, some of which have been deployed for more than seven years. Specifically, the following models are End-of-Life (EOL) and will reach End-of-Service (EOS) by December 31, 2013:

• FCP (10G, 10Gx, 5200, 5200 Blade, 500, 120, 100, and 60)
• FCR (85, 10G)

“End of service” essentially means that we’ve stopped producing software code updates/fixes for the 4.X code base running on the legacy systems affected by this end-of-life notification. We will however continue to support these legacy products via active Maintenance Agreements until 12/31/2013.

Not to worry though, our new FCP 10GigE or FCP GigE platforms include the latest generation hardware, more power and run state-of-the-art FCP code base to handle all of your multi-homed optimization needs. Moreover, we are offering reduced rates to assist you in upgrading to these new platforms, which include the first year of Support and Maintenance at no charge.

Information about the new platforms can be found here.
Please call your FCP rep or 877.843.7627 if you need assistance during this transition.

How do online game developers make sure their players get the best user experience possible? Challenges such as latency, scalability and increased competition within the gaming industry can have an adverse effect on player retention and the number of daily active users.

Hi-Rez Studios, Inc., a recent winner of the TAG Excalibur Award, relies on Internap’s Performance IP, cloud hosting and Content Delivery Network (CDN) services to address these challenges. As an independent studio that creates online interactive entertainment, they have successfully launched two massively multiplayer online games worldwide while scaling seamlessly to support traffic growth from 100 gigabits per year to 1.6+ petabytes per month.

Learn more about how Hi-Rez Studios drives player loyalty and stays competitive with a high-speed scalable IT Infrastructure.

Many consumers who went home with a new Wii U on November 18 were dismayed by the need to download a firmware update that in some cases took more than an hour to complete. Nintendo recently announced another firmware update coming out for the console and warned that it also will take an hour or more to download for many users.

As a result, Content Delivery Network (CDN) and web acceleration solutions are becoming vital to the video game industry. You don’t want to have somebody buy a game that you just released only to have them wait an hour before they can even play it. If you are supporting digital downloads, you want to make sure the process does not take so long that users become frustrated with your game before they even make it to the title menu.

The evolution of system performance
As hardware evolves to the point that 1080p resolutions are commonplace, data distribution problems can emerge. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are both outdated from a hardware standpoint. When the new versions of those consoles come out, which most experts anticipate will happen in 2013, the video game industry will likely take a major stride forward in game and hardware performance. Furthermore, the heightened hardware capabilities in consoles will likely lead to developers taking advantage of more PC capabilities as well, as they have been limited by the low baseline established by current consoles.

This creates an environment in which performance throughout games — not just in terms of graphics, but also in artificial intelligence, social interaction, network functionality and motion sensing — could rise in almost every genre and type of game. At the same time, system management will also become more complex, leading to the need for major firmware updates like the ones Nintendo is dealing with. All of this is compounded by the need to treat all consoles like computers from a security standpoint and make regular updates to deal with any vulnerability.

The future of content delivery
So, why does this evolution matter? When Nintendo asked users to wait more than an hour for a download, it was unheard of. This may not be the case for long. With the amount of data that will go into games and systems during the next few years, large updates will likely be necessary. This makes data delivery a priority for developers, publishers and console OEMs because they have to make sure data gets to end users without such long download times. Otherwise, update and patching speeds could become a customer service issue moving forward, something that is already prevalent in online video games and will likely become more prominent as games get more expansive and intelligent.

Nintendo’s initial struggles with Wii U firmware updates, while understandable, point to the problems that could be coming with next-generation video games. Some issues could be specific to the Wii U firmware and the nuances of the console, but the data transit climate needed to support advanced video game functionality should not be downplayed. Network services can help companies overcome some of these problems and put themselves in a solid position to keep their customers happy through efficient updates and content delivery processes.

To learn more about the importance of efficient content delivery for game developers and publishers, download the Online Gaming Industry Handbook.

The right IT Infrastructure can make or break your business. This is especially true for companies that provide IT services, hosting and streaming for SaaS clients. Without the right foundation in place, it limits your ability to offer agile, cost-effective solutions that will grow and scale along with the needs of your clients. Let’s take a look at a real-world example of how one company successfully provides its SaaS clients with innovative, cutting-edge performance solutions.

As an Internap partner for more than a decade, Jolokia provides hosting, streaming and IT services using a private cloud infrastructure, with worldwide content distribution and dynamic application acceleration technologies. With a broad client base of SaaS application providers and clients that require support for delivery of live and on-demand rich media, Jolokia must provide top-notch solutions.

In order for their clients to be successful, a few critical pieces must be in place:

High availability – Access to a high availability network is clearly at the top of Jolokia’s list. With the majority of its customers being SaaS providers, it is crucial for their revenue-generating services to be supported by a network infrastructure with best-in-class levels of availability.

Low latency – Excellent latency performance is essential. Many SaaS applications depend on minimal delay within the connecting network to ensure the necessary performance for end-user expectations. A two-second delay in website performance results in a 3.75% reduction in clicks. This delay also results in more than a 4% loss in satisfaction and, most importantly, a 4.3% loss in revenue per visitor.

Content Delivery Network (CDN) – Jolokia constantly streams transmuxed VOD, and thanks to Internap’s VOD and Live Streaming CDN service, they are able to process very large transmuxed events on the system successfully.

Internap has helped Jolokia meet its goals by providing a performance infrastructure that few companies can match. According to Mark Pace, CTO of Jolokia, “We have done hundreds of small events with a few hundred people to events with over a hundred thousand. We stream transmuxed VOD all day, every day. No small beans there with the size of events and the demands of our customers; between the platform and the excellent service I cannot recommend anyone more.”

Providing flexible alternatives to their customers is a hallmark of the Jolokia model. With demanding customers seeking to make their SaaS services more efficient, more scalable and more cost effective, Jolokia needs a partner it can count on.

Download “A Content Delivery Network Buyer’s Guide” to help you determine if CDN services are right for your business.

Are you the SMB or new startup who began housing a server in your spare closet? Or is your mid-size business booming with application usage and customers who can’t get enough of your product? Or are you the enterprise that has the hardware, capital and manpower you need, and are now considering building your own data center facility?

If you are facing challenges managing your IT Infrastructure, now is the time to set the strategy for 2013. At each stage of a company lifecycle, a new hurdle will present itself, so before you make the decision to partner with a colocation provider, here are some factors to consider.

Colocation drivers, benefits and ROI – Performance, scalability and data growth are the top infrastructure challenges for enterprises.

Build your own data center – Did you know the average cost of building a data center is between $1000 and $1500 per square foot? This is important to consider when evaluating long-term, cost-effective options.

Scalability – Leading data centers now offer power capacities of up to 12Kw per rack – more power, same footprint.

As you plan for next year, how do you know if colocation is the right solution for your organization? And more importantly, how do you make the case for it?

Want to learn more? Our Colocation Buyer’s Guide is a comprehensive resource to help you make an informed decision about colocation.

A recent CNN article by Blake Snow, entitled “Why console gaming is dying” tried to investigate the reasons behind the current downward trend in both console hardware and game sales. According to Mr. Snow, the roots of this trend are found in the rise of social/mobile gaming, the evolution of consoles as home entertainment devices, the free-to-play business model and a lack of game developer creativity. Perhaps, the article posits, we are facing the last generation of consoles. Last month, NPD Group reported that U.S. retail sales of video-game software, hardware and accessories, the majority of which are console-related, dropped 25 percent in October – the 11th consecutive month of declining sales. But does the future really look so bleak? Although the article concludes that consoles are not dead, not yet anyway, there are several things that it either overlooks or underscores.

Admittedly, consoles really need a refresh. Console generations have been historically bound to a five-year cycle, but this generation is currently on its seventh year and the next generation, currently headed by Nintendo’s newly released Wii U, is just getting started. So what does this mean? With the exception of the Wii U, most consumers that wanted a PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii have already purchased one. Also, as a new generation looms it is usually accompanied by a slowdown of new game releases, and with the exception of a couple of large IPs, this was seen both last year and this year.

Is having a console that doubles as an entertainment system really detrimental for the gaming industry? Although there may be many consumers whose prime motive to purchase a console wasn’t gaming, it does get the hardware into the living room and that is an important first step. Therefore, just like many consumers buy PCs for other reasons besides gaming, just getting consoles through the door opens up the possibility of future game purchases.

What about the free-to-play business model? Since late last year, there have been several free-to-play offerings on PSN and the first free-to-play game on Xbox live was launched earlier this year. This shift in mentality should bring many of the “try it before you buy it” gamers back into the console fold.

And what about stagnating developer creativity? It’s true that many developers have shifted their focus to mobile gaming, but there’s been a lot of creativity in this generation (BioShock, Super Mario Galaxy, World of Goo, Journey, the list can go on and on). The next-gen consoles will still maintain a huge gaming audience – and the potential for tidy payoffs will continue to entice developers to create interesting console games.

As for the rise of social and mobile gaming, its impact on home console gaming should be limited. Why? Home consoles offer a very different gaming experience that is usually longer and more in-depth than what mobile games offer. However, handheld consoles are another story entirely and taking into account the sluggish start of both the 3DS and the Vita, it’s hard not to see them in the cross hairs of social and mobile gaming.

Mr. Snow cautiously concludes that it is too soon to declare the end of consoles while stating that their future appears highly uncertain. Although it’s hard to argue with the uncertainty of the future, it’s also hard not to look at the past successes and envision a similar trend as the new generation takes off. PS4 or Xbox 720 anyone?

By the way, if you are in the market for gaming IT Infrastructure, you might want to read our new White Paper: Five Considerations for Building Online Gaming Infrastructure.