Region-specific matters in game product design and cloud architecting.
- Charlotte Letamendia
- Mar 15, 2024
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 20
That is a no brainer that low latency is crucial for a media and entertainment app, especially for voice and video based real-time communication or multiplayer games. So that the user can get a responsive interaction using the app. UX is not the only point of attention during the design phase. Let's browse the elements that will lead to the right infra location decision.
This article helps product manager to understand the regionalization matter, in the product design, so that they can take smart decisions without compromises.
Use case - App design with end users in Argentina
Dataset - all dataset and source are presented here here
Question 1 - When localization matters ?
The choice of the location of the infrastructure region impacts :
The latency that directly impacts user experience;
The data residency when the compliance with local regulations and data sovereignty laws requires storing and processing data within specific regions, ensuring legal and security standards are met;
The cost when service provider contribute to the final cost passed on to users.
Question 2 - Cloud Services Available in Argentina
In Argentina a large numbers of providers is offering Virtual Private Servers. This servers are available in a pay-as-you-go mode and can be configured and managed by users according to their specific needs.
In the opposite only a few providers are offering a complete suite of product enabling automation, management, and deployment of infrastructure through code instead of manual configurations. This suite is proposed by main cloud provider, on the contrary of VPS and DS providers.
So that the infra is repeatable, scalable, and consistency. Today, at the edge of AI coding and agent for deployment and decision, cloud services appears as a must to deploy our services and gain in team frugality, and velocity on our roadmap.
Table 1 – Breakdown of Service Providers by Service Type in Buenos Aires
Service | Number of Providers | Providers | |
0 | Cloud | 1 | Huawei |
1 | Cloud LZ | 1 | AWS |
2 | DC | 1 | |
3 | Network | 1 | Sencinet |
4 | VPS | 14 | Cirion, SyT Datacenter, IPXON, SkyOnline, Giga... |
5 | Web | 1 |
Analysis
x 14 Providers are offering VPS.
x 2 Cloud providers
Building over VPS is a more complex alternative than over a complete cloud product line.
Decision
>> I am going to choose a nearby region zooming into the latency
Question 2 - Cloud Services Available in Latam
Nearby regions such as São Paulo (Brazil) and Santiago (Chile) also offer viable alternatives — whether for primary deployment or for enhancing regional resiliency.
Table 2 – Breakdown of Cloud Service Providers by in Latam
City | Number | Providers | |
0 | Bogota | 1 | [Oracle] |
1 | Buenos Aires | 2 | [Huawei, AWS LZ] |
2 | Lima | 1 | [Huawei] |
3 | Rio de Janeiro | 1 | [Azure] |
4 | Santiago | 3 | [Oracle, Huawei, GCP ] |
5 | Sao Paulo | 6 | [Oracle, Linode, AWS, Azure, Huawei, GCP] |
6 | Valparaiso | 1 | [Oracle] |
7 | Vinhedo | 1 | [Oracle] |
Data in latam
14 regions
1 local zone
Decision
>> Chili and Brazil can be alternative looking for a region nearby Buenos Aires
Question 2 - Price comparison
Price in latam
Price variation: between +10% and +40% (Huawei (-15%) is an exception)
Analysis
In Latin America, cloud services are available in Brazil and, more recently, in Chile. The main providers include the usual players: GCP, Oracle, Huawei, AWS, and Azure..
Brazil is significantly more expensive compared to other regions due to local taxes, and it primarily serves the local market, making it less suitable for foreign markets.
Except for Oracle, no provider offers the two regions in the same country
Compromise?
There’s no compromise on price — Brazil is excluded from the list of eligible options.
Using two regions with one provider offers simplicity: a single configuration, a single contract. On the other hand, choosing two regions across two providers aligns with best practices for resilience and allows better leverage for price negotiation, even if it requires additional effort to support multi-cloud deployment.
Simplicity or flexibility?I choose flexibility.
Therefore, my recommendation is to designate AWS (AR-US) as the primary deployment zone and GCP (Chile) as the secondary, redundant zone.
Comparaison of prices between regions by provider
based on the price of one service : Standard Object Storage price (Go/month) in LATAM
compared to USA North (N. Virginia) : 0,023 USD/Go/month
Question 3 - Game specifity and gpu availability ?
Developing games i have in between others 3 specific requirements :
(1) Low latency
As an architect for game platform, I have thousands of users who are using my web application and they need a low latency.
Latency is maybe the major specificity in gaming infrastructure. Latency is the delay in sending information from one point to the next; it affects response times. It’s reduced when processing at the edge because data produced by sensors and IoT devices no longer needs to be sent to a centralized cloud to be processed.
(2) Large bandwidth
Bandwidth is the rate at which data is transferred over the internet. When data is sent to the cloud, it travels through a wide area network, which can be costly due to its global coverage and high bandwidth needs. When processing data at the edge, local area networks can be utilized, resulting in higher bandwidth at lower costs.
(3) Inference
The application use an AI algorithm that retrain and learn from the actions, and provide contextual action, images, speetch, characters. The application call an application with IA inference where the response is expected with les than ms. Moreover the AI algorithm retrains and learns from the actions
During the design phase i am doint proof of concept with photorealistic neural rendering, automating storytelling with large language model, automatically programing portion of the games, realistic NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) with LLM.
Zoom in the components in AWS local region in Buenos Aires
Today only AWS local zone is offering a GPU option in Buenos Aires.
The C5 group of instances is suitable for my applications as it is design for online gaming, machine learning, media transcoding: compute-intensive tasks
The G4dn instances are the best option for small-scale machine learning (ML) training and GPU-based ML inference
The R5 Instances for memory-intensize applications, such as mid-size databases and real-time big data analytics.
Compromize ? Lucky me, some GPU are available in AWS local zone in Argentina
>>> Take away
As a product manager working with architect,
I am informed and take unbiased decisions. I found the best compromise to improve performance and reduce costs, based on data and technical tests.
It is not easy to have a good and unique solution. As a result we did small compromises:
Moderate compromise: A slight increase in latency (a few nanoseconds) by choosing hosting in Santiago (GCP).
No compromise on cost: Hosting the application in Buenos Aires to optimize expenses.
No compromise on Infrastructure as Code: Ensuring agility and speed in the roadmap.
The Argentina landscape is specific due to local constrains such as inflation and importation and usual patterns of implementation and design are not plugeable for argentina deployment. Compromize have to be done and in this contexte proabably hybrid architecture are necessary to mix advantage of the cloud and edge servor to bring latency.
Lasnubesalternativas helps you make informed and unbiased decisions to improve performance and reduce costs, based on data and technical tests.
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