neowiz-database-case-study

Oracle Customer Case Study Neowiz Achieves Reliability and Reduces Operating Costs Using Robust Database Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Published December 2007 Neowiz Corporation Seoul, Korea www.neowiz.com Industry: High-Technology Annual Revenue: US$141 million Employees: 450 Oracle Products & Services: Oracle Database Enterprise Edition Key Benefits: 􀂃 Moved more than 99% of systems, including gaming, community, internal, and backups onto Oracle 􀂃 Processed more than 8,000 transactions per second across a single Web game without compromising performance 􀂃 Supported backup systems in which Neowiz conducts test and checking and ensures reliability of production environment “Oracle Database has delivered the high availability and performance required by our business while reducing administration costs. The database can manage more than 8,000 transactions per second across an individual internet game." – Taegeun Bae, Team Manager, DB Engineering Team, Neowiz Corporation Founded in 1997, Neowiz is a South Korean-based business that provides Web content such as gaming, music, and virtual communities. Online gaming is provided through the Pmang portal (www.pmang.com), virtual community products such as messaging and personalized avatars are provided through SayClub (www.sayclub.com), and music downloads are available through JukeON (www.jukeon). The business also offers services such as application development and electronic payment. In March 2007, United States-based videogame business Electronic Arts spent US$105 million to acquire 19% of Neowiz. The companies are now collaborating to develop online gaming in Asia. In 2007, Neowiz restructured its businesses into a single holding company, Neowiz, and independent companies, Neowiz Internet, Neowiz Games, Neowiz Investment, and Neowiz INS. New Database Supports Demand Online gaming is big business in South Korea. A combination of high broadband penetration and a tech-savvy population has fuelled the enormous popularity of games accessed over the internet and played by multiple participants. Neowiz is a leading player in the market. The business moved into gaming in 2001 after launching in 1997 with an automatic access program for the internet and diversifying into online virtual communities in 1999. In 2000, Neowiz launched a personalized avatar service that allowed people to pay money over the internet to clothe and change the hairstyles of their representative characters. Oracle Customer Case Study In 2001, Neowiz realized it had to implement a highly scalable, robust, and available database platform to support demand in South Korea for multiplayer gaming delivered over the Internet. After evaluating rival solutions, Neowiz implemented an Oracle Database to ensure gamers received premium service and the business could meet its ambitious growth targets. With server hardware specifications improving, Neowiz decided to operate the database on a single large machine rather than on multiple servers running in parallel. This decision meant the information technology team needed only to administer and maintain a system hosted on one server rather than one distributed across several machines. This has lowered potential costs and ensured information technology staff can focus on higher-value tasks. “The single system is optimized for the management of large volumes of data—Oracle Database can run more than 8,000 transactions per second across an individual Web game,” said Taegun Bae, team leader, Database Technical Team, Neowiz. Backup Ensures Availability Oracle Database supports a comprehensive business continuity architecture that minimizes the risk of downtime and data loss. Primary and secondary backup systems enable administration and system tests to be undertaken without disruption to Neowiz online communities. Backup is undertaken early each morning and ensures the production environment is comprehensively replicated. This enables Neowiz to minimize downtime and data loss in the event of an outage. Future Plans Neowiz plans to deploy a Data Repository System for data automation, from collecting and refining data to integrating objects, and a Data Quality Management System to address problems by refining data on the backup system every day. Why Oracle? To support forecast growth, Neowiz evaluated a range of solutions, including an existing Informix database used to manage concurrent processing at a high level of performance. The business also examined Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL databases that had captured sizable market share in gaming. Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Published December 2007 Oracle Customer Case Study “Oracle Database stood out during our evaluation due to its reliability, availability, and scalability,” said Bae. “This was critical to manage the massive concurrent processing tasks generated by a large online gaming community and support users across our other businesses.” Founded in 1997, Neowiz is a South Korean-based business that provides Web content such as gaming, music, and virtual communities. Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Published December 2007