The next generation of video gaming won’t depend on ROM cartridges of RCA cables for performance – gaming needs high performance data center connectivity. Even cloud gaming companies that own their own hyperscale data centers will still need colocation to deliver low latency streaming to users. Burgeoning interconnection provider KevlinX thinks they know just the spot to maximize gaming network performance: Brussels, Belgium.
The European gaming market boasts hundreds of millions of users, and is worth tens of billions of Euros. The largest and most important collection of gamers are found in the northern area of Europe’s blue banana region: the densest, most affluent, and fastest growing metropolitan areas of Europe. For connectivity, the four cities of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Paris (informally known as FLAP) are paramount. FLAP is such a large and dominant IT sphere that it often is used as a shorthand to represent the European colocation market itself. As the EU data center market skyrockets, FLAP is ground zero. The four areas are responsible for a record of take-up last year, representing 24% annual growth.
For cloud gaming companies, FLAP is ground zero. But where should they set up shop? Choosing one of the main FLAP centres means sacrificing distance to end users and round trip time for the other three. Moreover, there are other logistical concerns. Growth restrictions in Amsterdam and constraints on appropriate data center capacity in Germany, the UK, and France mean connectivity in the FLAP cities is not easily obtained. For KevlinX, they believe it’s time gaming platforms and content distributors look to other markets.
Brussels lies at the very geographical center of FLAP, equidistant to each metro area. KevlinX offers separate fibre entrances to each of the four FLAP cities and is loaded with exchange points and carriers, meaning gaming companies can minimize the distance to each center while optimizing fast, responsive service. KevlinX believes this location and connectivity access – combined with the lowest electricity costs outside of the Nordics – make for an optimal cloud gaming service hub.
The market for gaming is huge and growing, and for video games to take the next step they’ll depend on cloud colocation in a low-latency edge data center. KevlinX is hedging on the idea that for cloud gaming companies, the best place to be is right in the middle of it all.
To read more about why KevlinX is betting on Brussels for cloud gaming, read their latest article on the topic here.
