Skyegrid was founded to deliver top-tier video games to budget gamers via the cloud. When the business needed a cloud platform to support its service, it chose IBM Cloud® and IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers. With the IBM® solution, the business can offer its subscribers access to the latest games at an affordable price.
To support its cloud gaming platform and deliver a top-notch gaming experience free from latency, Skyegrid needed a powerful cloud platform that could scale to meet growing numbers of subscribers.
Skyegrid chose IBM Cloud and IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers to support its cloud gaming service. The IBM Cloud helps minimize latency while high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) help deliver quality graphics.
and 500,000–550,000 unique visitors monthly
Cloud gaming is the future, according to Skyegrid founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rolly Edward. In the past, if you didn’t have access to a PC or laptop or those devices lacked the necessary specifications, you simply couldn’t play the latest and most advanced video games. “I had this idea to create a massive subscription gaming service, so that anyone could play, even without having the hardware,” says Edward.
Skyegrid was founded to provide a cloud platform that allows gamers on a budget to play games online from their mobile devices or older computers. And not just any games. Skyegrid wanted to be able to offer its subscribers “AAA” games, a designation in the gaming industry given to the top-tier games that are created by larger studios, with larger budgets.
Delivering a top-notch gaming experience via the cloud can be challenging. If there’s not enough computing power available, users can experience latency, or lags, that seriously disrupt play. To deliver a gaming experience that’s just as good as play on a console or computer, Skyegrid needed a powerful cloud platform to support its service. Finding the best solution became even more important after Skyegrid partnered with several telecommunications companies in Indonesia. “We’re forging partnership with a lot of telco companies in Indonesia where they will bundle Skyegrid to their mobile data plan,” says Edward. So Skyegrid needed to be prepared for a big increase in subscribers through these partnerships.
In 2018, Skyegrid began using IBM Cloud through the Startup with IBM program. “So for the first year, I'm getting about a thousand dollars for one server for one year from IBM,” says Edward. “That's really healthy for my business.”
The business then continued to use IBM Cloud along with Citrix Hypervisor to support its gaming service. The business is also using the high-performance GPU technology that’s available on IBM Cloud to deliver high quality graphics. Skyegrid chose IBM because it was the only provider able to offer bare metal servers. “Only IBM provides the bare metal servers that we needed,” says Edward. “My software is based on bare metal, and the bare metal solution is much cheaper than other cloud solutions. Plus, IBM has cloud services available around the world.”
Using cloud technology means Skyegrid can get its server resources using its operating expenses, not its capital expenses. “It’s helping our users to try the service for a reasonable price,” says Edward. “If the price of the cloud platform was higher, we would have to increase the price of the service. IBM is helping me to optimize the price as always. Without IBM in Singapore and in Indonesia, I could not fund this business right now.”
By using IBM Cloud to support its gaming platform, Skyegrid is able to keep its costs down, which in turn helps keep costs low for its subscribers. Since Skyegrid launched it services in August 2018, it has gained 3,000 paying subscribers. The site, which also has a daily news feed for Indonesian gamers, has also accumulated more than 9 million views since its launch, with an average of 16,000–18,000 unique visitors daily, and about 500,000–550,000 unique visitors monthly.
In addition to a reasonable price for a subscription, Skyegrid is able to offer its subscribers access to 88 gaming titles, which is 28 more than its closest competitor. Plus, Skyegrid is the only cloud gaming platform in Indonesia that supports Android devices, in addition to those running the Mac OS, Windows OSs and Linux OSs.
The platform is attracting gamers from the US, Malaysia and Singapore as well as Indonesia. The region has huge potential for the gaming service, with more than 41 million gamers in Indonesia alone. Skyegrid plans to expand its service to other countries using the global resources available through IBM Cloud. “You can just procure an IBM server in an IBM datacenter around the world,” says Edward. “You can just start your business anywhere.”
Located in Jakarta, Indonesia, Skyegrid is a cloud gaming platform that gives gamers access to premium games that can be played anywhere, anytime through mobile data services. The platform also provides integrated media, communication and customer support for gamers. The business, which launched in 2018, is owned by PT Harmoni Indo Media. Skyegrid's 11 employees are passionate about bringing more flexible gaming options to the gamer community across Southeast Asia.
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