Gamania Upskills Employees in AWS and Brings New Games to Market 70% Faster

Gamania Group is a publicly traded digital entertainment corporation headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Originally established as a successful PC online game distributor, the group has since expanded its business footprint into multiple domains, including ecommerce, digital media, online retail, payment solutions, and original content creation. To develop a diversified digital ecosystem, these solutions are seamlessly connected through beanfun!, a digital entertainment portal and online community.

Since Gamania Group’s founding in 1995, the gaming industry has evolved continuously. Notably, the online gamer community significantly increased during the pandemic, a trend that Paul Ding, the convener of Gamania Group's information security committee, has witnessed firsthand.

To keep up with the dynamic online gaming industry, Gamania sought to cater to the surge in online and mobile game production demand for millions of new players. However, due to the complexity of its existing multi-cloud strategy and hybrid architecture, its IT team encountered challenges in developing cloud skills and enhancing efficiency. Making critical operational decisions also often took a long time. For example, reaching an agreement on security configurations on its on-premises network could take up to three months, followed by an additional three months for evaluation and testing. "This was inefficient, and we couldn't sustain this approach in the long term,” Ding adds. To address this, Gamania wanted to simplify operations by gradually moving away from its use of on-premises infrastructure and progressively transitioning to a single cloud platform.

To streamline its infrastructure and operations, Gamania chose to migrate to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Ding explains, “To facilitate migration, we’re focused on establishing a common language across all departments. Upgrading our engineers’ skillsets to fully utilize the capabilities of AWS is also a priority.”

Gamania Group collaborated with AWS Training and Certification to upgrade AWS skills throughout its organization. Ding emphasized the need for training across all departments, not just IT.

AWS Training and Certification offered a range of AWS Classroom foundational and advanced courses such as AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials, AWS Technical Essentials, Advanced Architecting on AWS, and Security Engineering on AWS. These courses covered AWS resource management, application development and deployment, data handling, and utilization of AWS services. In particular, Gamania valued the security-related courses, which reinforced security best practices through the AWS Well-Architected framework. As a result, the group has strengthened its security with AWS services, such as AWS Security Hub, which automates security checks and centralize security alerts, and AWS Trusted Advisor, which continually analyzes AWS environments and recommends actions to follow best practices.

To provide greater value, AWS conducted customized training workshops, incorporating scenarios that are relevant for Gamania Group employees across all divisions. The team also introduced an AWS continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) Workshop and hosted AWS GameDay events. These initiatives were designed to make learning interactive, encouraging developers to experiment and apply their skills in practice.

With its technical and non-technical team’s upgraded knowledge foundation in cloud security and governance, Gamania has reduced the time it takes to make critical decisions by 50 percent and has lowered its time-to-market by up to 70 percent. Gamania has also accelerated the launch of new games, achieving a new company record by successfully releasing four games in the last two years. Moreover, since migrating to the AWS Cloud, the team has gained the confidence to rapidly develop multiple software as a service (SaaS) solutions, such as its proprietary SPKITA Game Cloud (SGC). Powered by AWS, SGC is a SaaS platform designed for cost-effective game development with up to ten times greater efficiency.

Within two years, Gamania trained over 200 employees and 50 percent of them obtained AWS Certifications in various domains. The group aims to have at least 25 percent of its entire workforce acquire foundational AWS skills by 2024. Ding explains, "Nurturing satisfied and productive employees is a key strategy for us, and AWS Training and Certification aligns perfectly with our growth plan."

The group has also improved employee retention rate by 10 percent through AWS Training, positioning itself to overcome the challenge of developer talent scarcity in Taiwan. “To us, AWS is more than just a vendor; AWS plays a pivotal role as a coach, standing by us to cultivate cloud talent for the long run and propel our digital transformation,” adds Ding.

Looking ahead, Gamania plans to incorporate AWS artificial intelligence and machine learning services to enhance user experience and streamline advanced game testing in the next 3−5 years. In addition, the group plans to take advantage of AWS Training and Certification programs to ensure that its teams are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge. "The gaming industry is expanding rapidly, yet also becoming increasingly competitive. Through AWS Training and Certification, we’ve positioned ourselves to seize upcoming business opportunities,” Ding concludes.