Scalable colocation supports Nitrado’s rapid growth

Nitrado is a world-leading game server and application hosting provider. Amito has supported its rapid growth, helping it to double its datacentre footprint in just three years.

Gamers are a demanding lot. They won’t tolerate any latency or downtime, so systems must be able to keep up with the speed of play. Nitrado is a world-leading game server and application hosting provider which hosts games on its own high-specification servers. At the last count, its infrastructure hosted nearly 40,000 CPU cores, 400,000GB of RAM and 1PB of SSD storage.

The brief

With plans to expand into the UK, Nitrado approached Amito to support its first steps into the new market with an initial server deployment. It started with a quarter rack in Telehouse – a leading UK interconnection facility. At the time, Nitrado’s primary focus was on the latency of its network connections.

Priorities shifted a few months later following a successful UK launch. Nitrado was ready to grow its footprint by adding further servers. This required a rethink, as its servers are very power-hungry, and while Telehouse has superior network access it is relatively limited on power per-rack.

The solution

A move to Amito’s own 1,000-rack Reading datacentre offered the capacity, connectivity and power Nitrado required, on a cost-effective per kilowatt or per rack basis. The customer also benefits from full, unlimited onsite support –  vital as it’s based in the US. This includes undertaking tasks such as racking all new servers and adding additional memory on the customer’s behalf.

Starting with a 2kW rack to accommodate the initial server installations, Nitrado was able to easily ramp this up when the time was right. All our customers have real-time access to their power readings via the VISION portal. This allowed Nitrado to request additional power up to 7kW per cabinet as needed – either when new systems were added, or to increase the capacity of existing ones.

The outcomes

Nitrado’s presence has now grown to several full racks in our Reading datacentre, and it recently upgraded its core routers in anticipation of further significant expansion.

• Built-in flexibility – our consultative approach has delivered a solution that can continue to grow with the business, ensuring costs and technical delivery can be managed.
• Excellent connectivity – with ultra-low latency and consistent jitter, which are crucial for gamers.
• Real-time communication – the VISION portal allows us to stay in constant touch with Nitrado staff, and gives all parties a record of the work undertaken.
• DDoS protection service – we provide automatic detection and mitigation in response to cyber attacks, allowing them to be defeated within minutes.