Zynga may be on its way to becoming a serious competitor to Amazon’s robust Infrastructure as a Service, since the social network gaming giant will soon sell cloud IaaS to game makers in need of a hosting platform.Zynga may not be the first company to offer cloud IaaS, but it will be the first to target game companies for their service, which could be their way of taking advantage of the booming online game industry. Oddly enough, Zynga’s current situation is similar to Amazon’s a few years ago, when the retailing giant went from just selling books to becoming an all around online retail outfit that also sells other retailers’ products, until they eventually started selling raw computing IaaS.
However, a more direct comparison for Zynga would be the New York Stock Exchange’s efforts to sell cloud services to traders, since both companies are trying to sell IaaS that are customized to the needs of their target industry.
From Reliance to Competition
It is also interesting to note that Zynga’s move into the cloud industry has now put them in direct competition with Amazon, even though they used to rely on the retail giant for 80% of their computing capacity a year ago. Since then, Zynga has changed lowered their reliance on Amazon to 20%, which should be great news to investors who are complaining about the company’s recent losses, because it could only mean that Zynga’s long term projects have taken a turn for the better.Zynga’s Advantage as a Cloud Service Provider
Zynga’s main advantage as a cloud computing service provider is that they have extensive experience and expertise on the industry that they are targeting. Their successful online games and the length of time in which they have run means that they know the ins and outs of the industry, and can tailor their services to cater to the needs of game companies.Zynga’s move away from Amazon also serves as glimmer of hope for enterprises, as it proves that companies can build their own private clouds and profit from its use without relying on public cloud.
It is believed that game developers will flock to Zynga’s platform since it is designed as a ready-to-use platform for online games, and this may result in a boost in the online gaming industry, as developers who were previously held back by difficulties in setting up an infrastructure can now turn to Zynga’s services and use it as a turnkey approach.
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