Enabling a cloud-native, distributed workload

Phenix required a cloud services provider that would help it scale without having to manage servers and other IT infrastructure. Phenix brilliantly implemented a philosophy of truly zero-ops. The entire system automatically scales to flawlessly support millions of users around the world without any human intervention.

“We have been extremely successful with a relatively small group of engineers,” says Birrer. “Taking the cloud-native approach and aligning with Google Cloud provided us with the ability to keep our engineers hyper-focused on product and feature development rather than infrastructure management.”

Due to the demands of real-time streaming, especially for sporting events, being a cloud-native company also allows Phenix to support massive, sudden increases in viewers. During the famous Cheltenham Festival horse races this year, Phenix supported a record 500,000 simultaneous viewers. Phenix technologies supported HTTP load requests that instantly spiked from near-zero to 40,000 requests per second while maintaining a median response time of less than 1 millisecond.

“Google Cloud allows us to maximize the benefits of our cloud-native approach to resource management,” says Birrer. “We can be extremely efficient in how resources are used, efficiently respond faster to flash crowds of viewers, and allow our platform to scale to optimally deliver real-time content.”

As part of its focus on ensuring the best possible viewer experiences, Phenix began working with Google Cloud Premier Partner DoiT International to further maximize the benefits of its cloud environment.