Music Mastermind With IBM SoftLayer and iDataPlex

IBM Corporation announced that Music Mastermind, Inc. has deployed a hybrid cloud solution consisting of IBM’s SoftLayer cloud service and iDataPlex systems enabling the technology start-up to scale its  cloud infrastructure when demand for its mobile game spikes.

Music Mastermind’s flagship product is Zya, a first-of-its-kind mobile game that allows fans to create and share original songs as they navigate their path to music stardom. The game’s cloud platform combines elements of interactive entertainment, music production tools, and social interaction. In doing so, it gives players the ability to create new songs, mash-up world-famous hits or combine elements of both to create music that is uniquely their own.

With support from SoftLayer Technologies, Inc. and iDataPlex, Zya is available in 155 countries. To enable consistent, quality delivery and deployment of the game to customers around the world, Music Mastermind requires a dispersed cloud infrastructure for its active users, hosting and application development.

Preparing for and deploying new mobile applications requires start-ups to think past the initial release and focus on managing increasing demand and unexpected spikes in traffic. In order to do so, Music Mastermind, with the help of IBM business partner Micro Strategies, Inc., installed IBM’s iDataPlex servers into its data centers in San Jose, CA and Ashburn, VA, not only to host the app and meet initial demand, but also to house regular application development for Zya.

Each center’s cloud is used to create 160 virtual instances, supporting an estimated 250,000 active users. To help manage the mounting data volumes generated by its user base, the company also uses the Storwize V7000 unified storage system. The disk system manages the company’s databases as well as provisioning for its Zya mobile game.

To maintain service on Zya during peak periods, especially after its launch in the global iTunes App Store, Micro Strategies brought in SoftLayer for global cloud bursting. With a high speed network that has the ability to create 1,000 virtual servers in each of its locations, SoftLayer is expected to be able to host and deliver Zya from 40 data centers in 15 countries and five continents by the end of 2015.

“Because we created Zya to reach music lovers all over the world, we needed it to be able to scale quickly, meeting global traffic demands while still maintaining strong bandwidth to deploy new features and continually enrich the player’s experience,” said Matt Serletic, co-founder and CEO, Music Mastermind. “Using IBM’s cloud solution has given us the capacity to grow, scale and host our networks in their most appropriate environments, freeing up extraneous expenses and labor that we can devote to ongoing innovation.“

The openness of SoftLayer’s cloud platform was also a significant draw. Based on OpenStack, IBM’s open standards-based cloud approach offers born on the web developers the interoperability and collaboration important for growth. With more than 500 developers dedicated to building and growing open standards, IBM’s dedication to open technologies and work with cloud Foundry and OpenStack is continuing to elevate software standards to become more secure, interoperable and scalable as businesses grow, such as the recent standard Havana.

“SoftLayer’s cloud platform gives developers greater interoperability and collaboration which is important for growth,” said Nathan Day, chief scientist, SoftLayer. “In addition, IBM has committed more than 500 developers who are dedicated to building and growing open standards. IBM’s dedication to open technologies and work with cloud Foundry and OpenStack is continuing to elevate software standards to become more secure, interoperable and scalable as businesses grow, such as the recently released standard Havana.“