When it comes to cloud computing, ‘Private’ versus ‘Public’ is ongoing debate as companies scale.  Many companies benefit from having a hybrid model; utilizing both private and public clouds like AWS. This allows  their cloud infrastructure to flex with spikes and dips in customer usage. For example, e-commerce sites need extra bandwidth around the holiday season. However, once some companies reach a certain size, moving more data to the private cloud may optimize performance.  Zynga is making the move to private-in fact 80% of its game traffic is now on their own private, “zCloud” as reported in their recent earnings call. (This is opposite of last year when 80% of operations were in AWS.)

Why Zynga is Moving to Private:

1.  Efficiency: zCloud is about 3 times more efficient  than AWS.  At the Cloud Connect Conference, Zynga said that it could eliminate one in three servers since moving its operations from AWS to its own private cloud.  It can also have 1,000 servers up and running in 24 hours.

2.  Tailored: According to a Venture Beat article, Zynga tailored zCloud design and eliminated every bottleneck in server components such as microprocessors, storage, and memory.

3. Intelligence: Because they own the infrastructure, Zynga has inside information on how they servers work and the computing experience that players have-allowing them to measure and adapt accordingly.  According to Tech Crunch, Zynga has created custom monitoring and management tools.

The cost question is still out there…but a private cloud can provide enormous savings if performance increases and usage consistently grows.  Zynga still has a relationship with AWS for flexibility although that may change as zCloud expands.  In fact, some have asked if zCloud could ever become a mini AWS in itself.