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Exent Back

Exent is a digital media company founded in 1992, specializing in marketing and distributing games on-demand for computers, mobile phones and tablets.
The company has partnered with more than 150 game developers from all around the world including: PopCap, iWin, Ubisoft, GameHouse and Alawar.

Popular Exent products:
1. Game Tanium offers managed services for game distributers and allows gamers the freedom to play anywhere they want, from their mobile phone, tablet, computer or television.
2. FreeRide Games provides end users premium games at no cost through an interface funded by advertising.

The Company's Requirement
Exent hosted 12 communication racks in two US data centers, located in Virginia and Maryland, and hired XGlobe to upgrade the systems for streamlined efficiency.
Specific requests included network infrastructure for redundancy and load balancing between the different communication carriers, virtualization and storage upgrades,
BI and updating backup systems in a new cage. Exent made it clear that their on-demand gaming platform requires fast, dependable and efficient response time from the
servers and the network.

First, a team including the XGlobe COO, his team and Manor Krupchik (Exent IT director) and his team was established to begin brainstorming. Their goals included: a smooth project
implementation without downtime (creating a solution which will handle existing loads), improving server response time, and developing a plan for future growth.

The solution
The team was divided into two separate sub-teams, comprised of members from both companies. The XGlobe team was responsible for the network’s field, data security, operation and logistics, while Exent was responsible for planning and establishing the VMware-based virtual system and the NetApp storage array.

Project Goals
1. Network
  a. Construct a direct optical fiber connection to two different communication carriers using 1GB IP connectivity lines
  b. Establish an additional optical fiber connection to XGlobe from a third carrier with 10GB bandwidth
  c. Establish a network with a new configuration including a “soft” transition from the former data facility to a new one
  d. Permanent configuration synchronization mechanism for all the network equipment sites between the data facility and the DR facility (F5 configuration, switches, firewalls and routers)
  e. Assimilation of a Nexus 5xxx system with Nexus 2xxx extenders in each cabinet (top of the rack)

2. Logistics and operation
  a. Real-time storage-level synchronization allowing the transfer of all virtual machines and their states from the old site to the remote site.
  b. Complete unification of systems from different data centers, followed by full operational support and upkeep.
  c. Testing of XGlobe remote data facilities including equipment disconnection to ensure that the activity switched over to the dedicated facility for installation.
  d. A logistic solution which makes operating both of the data facilities easier, simplifies working with different communication carriers, hardware warranty and a full network solution which matches the company’s expansion needs while maintaining operative simplicity.
  e. Designing and purchasing new hardware, configuring it to work with already on-site equipment, shipping and installing the configured equipment at the data facility in New York to prepare it for production.

To complete the project, Exent carefully migrated the system to production, while XGlobe completed the process by bringing up the equipment together with equipment from the other data facilities.

Summary
By the end of the project XGlobe proved that the new network equipment plan yielded a dozen percent improvement in system response time. Also, during the consolidation process,
the number of cabinets was reduced from 12 at the start of the project, to four.

Manor Krupchik IT Director
“As a leading player in the “gaming-on-demand” space, it was very important for us to choose a hosting provider who could fulfill the requirements of the project, which included tasks that were beyond our expertise. In order to stay focused, we decided it would be best to outsource these tasks.
Thankfully, we found a fantastic combination of network and system engineers and a great overall operation with advanced and redundant infrastructures. In the end, we received a turnkey project which has outperformed our expectations.”

Daniel Engelman, COO XGlobe
“The Exent project was challenging because it required a combination of forces including network, system, operative and a great amount of logistics. In addition, the challenge that the costumer presented
to us required meticulous preparation of each and every detail with perfect execution and zero room for mistakes.
Now that the project has been completed, the client reports a massive improvement in performance and end-customer satisfaction which was one of the primary goals.
We still provide ongoing management of the servers and network array and keep optimizing it all the time.
As Exent requested, in addition to the projects’ processes, XGlobe also provided additional system solutions which includes consulting services and migration of Varnish servers for static
files submission to meet the load and better response time of requests through CDN, and also Couchbase solutions for upgrading SQL abilities.
It’s important to note that Exent played an integral part in the success of the project and that the entire virtualization and the storage array was planned and assembled by Exent
as a part of a comprehensive work plan. Overall – It was just wonderful working together on this project.” 

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