In this following interview, we had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Sam Davis, the vice-president of products, from G-Core Labs, an edge cloud & hosting company.
Read this interview to learn more about
and the hosting industry in general.’
We did small research before the interview, and we found out that G-CoreLabs is on the market for 10 years now. Can you tell us a bit more what is the story behind G-CoreLabs? What is the path that the company had to walk to reach success?
Sam: The primary driving force that led us to where we are today is gaming. We started
in 2011 as an infrastructure provider for low-latency gaming. It was a big deal ten years ago when online game developers had no option for starting a service quickly and providing it globally within one cloud provider. Things proceeded well if you went for really progressive markets like the USA and Europe. Everything got complicated if you needed to start a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) for players in Central Asia, Europe, Africa, and the USA all at once. In this case, you had to use different solution providers for different regions and spend a substantial part of the budget on extending your resource capability.We decided to give our customers a ready-to-use infrastructure so that they can provide their services all over the world with low latency. To make it possible, we needed an infrastructure where the end customer is next to the network, and the network is next to the market you want to serve. We created dozens of points of presence so that our server clusters could serve our customers across the globe.
For the first few years, G-Core Labs offered the only single and inclusive solution on the market. Today, we are one of the top 10 global cloud and edge providers, according to a variety of ratings and research agencies.
What are the products and services that G-CoreLabs offers on the market?
Sam: We offer a cloud service system built as a one-stop solution for any online business. It includes a wide range of tools from an international
(CDN) ready for any traffic load and integrated with cloud object data storage to an advanced streaming platform for OTT live streaming and video-on-demand delivery. We also provide on all continents, full-scale cloud infrastructure using IaaS and PaaS models, and highly effective and fraudulent activities. On top of that, last year, we launched some long-awaited cloud services, including , a multifunctional service for video calls and one of the fastest DNS hosting services in the world.Different hosting companies have different strategies when it comes to reaching clients and customers. Some are focused on different regions, some are focused on customers with knowledge in hosting, and the opposite. Can you describe what is the customer of G-CoreLabs?
Sam: At the heart of our network infrastructure lies the edge paradigm. Since we need to be close to the end customers to ensure minimum response time, we strive to open as many points of presence in every region as possible. It makes the best solution for those types of customers who need to provide services globally and with minimum latency. In most cases, we are talking about international companies with end users all over the globe, including mass media, retail, finance, game business, SaaS services, etc. But it also might be a small business or startup that needs to provide services in some specific distant regions at a very attractive price or even for free.
We noticed that G-CoreLabs has a Gunisses World Record. Can you tell us a bit more about that achievement?
Sam: That’s true. Our infrastructure got into The Guinness Book of World Records for the most simultaneous online players on a single MOG server. In 2013, we had 190,541 online gamers on the server, but already in 2014, our network served a whole 1,114,000 gamers simultaneously. We currently serve millions of players daily.
We also noticed that over the years you have implemented new services and products. How important is it for one hosting company to introduce new products and services and to be in step with the competition?
Sam: It makes sense when you are trying to build a whole ecosystem of services for a client. During the initial five years, we were developing our infrastructure for several big customers. By 2016,
had accumulated so much expertise and experience that we decided to scale up our business. We already had a global network with one of the best response times on the market, so all we needed in order to be in step with competitors was to launch complex multi-purpose infrastructure-based products but with user-friendly interfaces, self-provisioning and affordable pricing. Over the next five years, we have launched a range of cloud services that now positively distinguish us from competitors.What are those products that you introduced over the years?
Sam: The first commercial products we launched in 2016 were
and . Our international content delivery network is ready for any traffic load and integrated with cloud object data storage. Since 2017, G-Core Labs launched a wide range of other cloud services from an advanced streaming platform for OTT live streaming and video-on-demand delivery to highly effective and fraudulent activities. We also provide and on all continents and recently launched Meet, a multi-purpose video call service for businesses that includes free plans. On top of that, in 2019, we launched the cloud (public and hybrid), including such services as virtual machines, not limited in capacity, with options for fast & seamless automatic scaling, load balancing, system backup, data disaster recovery, AI platform and Marketplace. This summer, we plan to add an option for auto-deploying Kubernetes clusters for container orchestration and Hadoop-based systems to facilitate work with big data.Keeping pace with the competition is very important in order to keep customers. In which ways G-CoreLabs is different from other hosting companies?
Sam:
is not just a hosting provider. We provide a full range of cloud services and products for any type of online business. That means our customers don’t have to use solutions from different companies. With G-Core Labs, they can have a single personal account, billing, support, and integrated products all in one place.If we talk about
and , we are currently among the top 10 providers at the international level. Our main advantages are a global network with one of the best response times on the market, a high level of security, and a user-friendly personal account with flexible controls over the entire ecosystem of cloud services with comfortable rates and premium technical support working 24/7.The pandemic was something that influenced a lot of industries. How G-CoreLabs managed the pandemic. What are your expectations for the following months about the hosting industry?
Sam: The pandemic has become a big accelerator for online business since people are sitting at home and consuming more media. In the IT industry, remote work became the biggest trend last year, and we were ready for it.
has teams everywhere: our people are located in the USA, Europe, Thailand and all over the globe. As a company, we were already working a lot with remote employees, and the majority of our tools were online. But COVID forced all types of companies, including more conservative businesses, to work this way.The pandemic also made people spend more time than usual on various media and entertainment resources. We recorded a 50% increase in consumer traffic in the video game industry and 20% in media companies. It has affected the income of hosting providers. Because of the pandemic, G-Core Labs profit increased by 30-40%, and we forecast growth in the future.
You are on the market for 10 years now. What can we expect from G-CoreLabs in the next 10?
Sam: If in 2010, everyone talked about the cloud, now they talk about edge. We are moving toward social media, AI, and VR where having a low latency infrastructure is of the highest importance. Edge computing will be the biggest trend soon. It will help develop VR/AR and make these tools available. It is also needed for cloud gaming, IoT devices, and other technologies. Therefore, our goal now is to provide the best network coverage possible worldwide with minimum delay and maximum reliability, and we are already working on about 100 projects for new points of presence. In the future, we are going to increase this number.
Another important issue for any business today is cybersecurity. The number of cyberattacks is constantly growing. At any given moment, you or your customers could be under attack anywhere in the world. With our
and cybersecurity tools, we are able to stop attackers in most cases, and we’re going to further improve these services.Finally, what advice would you give to the hosting community for the following period?
Sam: The coronavirus is a temporary phenomenon, but the trend for further digitalization will continue. Since everything will move online, the load on infrastructure will increase. Providers must extend their capacity in advance, as well as use modern and more efficient technologies in order to be prepared for the active development of telemedicine, online retail, digital education and services for organizing online meetings, virtual reality and augmented reality. The proof of this is that today, we can already see new phenomena of public life, such as online bars and “Skype weddings.”
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