The deal will see i3D.net integrate with 38 Equinix IBX data centres across the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe to provide the low-latency connectivity that underpins a seamless gaming experience.
Its part of i3D.net's work to rearchitect its infrastructure as the explosive growth predicted for the gaming sectors begins to trickle down to the marketplace. This growth has already seen i3D.net's capacity needs double.
Figures shared by the two states that, as an industry, gaming is forecast to increase from US$42.2 billion in 2020 to US$46.7b in 2025.
“With online gaming undergoing an unprecedented surge in popularity, Equinix can strategically support i3D.net in delivering the best possible user experience to gamers around the world,” said Matt George, director of segment marketing for EMEA at Equinix.
Equinix is the foundation behind the single portal that i3D.net offers its customers where they can scale highly customised gaming environments and traffic. It allocates gaming traffic to burst into multiple cloud accounts that gamers need from AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, through the interconnection of 40 exchanges.
George added: “Gamers are always striving to level-up, pushing themselves to better their skills and expanding their game-base; they expect nothing less from developers and providers. With new levels of demand, gaming platforms must be supported by robust digital infrastructure to enable the transfer of information at high speeds to ensure smooth game playing, while also offering the utmost security to protect sensitive player details.”
Describing itself as a games sector veteran, i3D.net providers "servers for gamers, by gamers". As an application hosting and infra service provider it operates a private network with capacity in excess of 15Tbps and has more than 1,000 direct peering connections.
In 2019 the business was acquired by Ubisoft and today i3D.net hosts titles for EA, and Splash Damage. Its goal is to connect one billion users by 2025.
COO Rick Sloot said: “We are committed to providing the best experience for our users’ gaming platforms, no matter where they are, so our network is one of the most important pillars of our company. Having healthy interconnection services that connect the i3D.net network with Platform Equinix means we can deliver the lowest latency to our end users, removing the frustration of in-game lag.
"Equinix’s interconnection services are extremely reliable and powerful, allowing us to grow anywhere in the world.”
