Cloud-Based Game Backend and Analytics Solution
Question
Mountkirk Games makes online, session-based, multiplayer games for mobile platforms.
They build all of their games using some server-side integration.
Historically, they have used cloud providers to lease physical servers.
Due to the unexpected popularity of some of their games, they have had problems scaling their global audience, application servers, MySQL databases, and analytics tools.
Their current model is to write game statistics to files and send them through an ETL tool that loads them into a centralized MySQL database for reporting.
Solution Concept - Mountkirk Games is building a new game, which they expect to be very popular.
They plan to deploy the game's backend on Google Compute Engine so they can capture streaming metrics, run intensive analytics, and take advantage of its autoscaling server environment and integrate with a managed NoSQL database.
Business Requirements -Increase to a global footprintImprove uptime " downtime is loss of playersIncrease efficiency of the cloud resources we useReduce latency to all customers Technical Requirements - Requirements for Game Backend PlatformDynamically scale up or down based on game activityConnect to a transactional database service to manage user profiles and game stateStore game activity in a timeseries database service for future analysisAs the system scales, ensure that data is not lost due to processing backlogsRun hardened Linux distro Requirements for Game Analytics PlatformDynamically scale up or down based on game activityProcess incoming data on the fly directly from the game serversProcess data that arrives late because of slow mobile networksAllow queries to access at least 10 TB of historical dataProcess files that are regularly uploaded by users' mobile devices Executive Statement -
Answers
Explanations
Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer
A. B. C. D. E.CE.
The solution concept proposed by Mountkirk Games is to build the new game backend platform on Google Compute Engine (GCE) to capture streaming metrics, run intensive analytics, and take advantage of its autoscaling server environment, and integrate with a managed NoSQL database. This will help them meet their business requirements, which include increasing their global footprint, improving uptime, reducing latency to all customers, and improving the efficiency of the cloud resources they use.
To meet the technical requirements for the game backend platform, Mountkirk Games will need to dynamically scale up or down based on game activity, connect to a transactional database service to manage user profiles and game state, store game activity in a timeseries database service for future analysis, ensure that data is not lost due to processing backlogs, and run a hardened Linux distro.
To meet the technical requirements for the game analytics platform, they will need to dynamically scale up or down based on game activity, process incoming data on the fly directly from the game servers, process data that arrives late because of slow mobile networks, allow queries to access at least 10 TB of historical data, and process files that are regularly uploaded by users' mobile devices.
Given these requirements, the most appropriate answer among the options provided is B, which recommends packaging the game backend artifacts in container images and running them on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to improve the ability to scale up or down based on game activity. GKE is a managed Kubernetes service that provides automatic scaling, self-healing, and load balancing capabilities, which will help Mountkirk Games meet their scaling requirements. Containerization provides consistency and portability across different environments, which is important when deploying the game backend platform to multiple regions around the world.
Option A is not the best choice because while it is important to store as much data as possible for future use, the immediate priority should be to meet the technical and business requirements. Option C is not directly related to the technical requirements and may not provide the most significant impact in terms of improving scalability or reducing latency. Option D is relevant but may not be the most critical issue to address given the other technical requirements. Option E is important but should be considered as part of the overall maintenance and security strategy, rather than a primary solution for meeting the technical requirements.
