Case Study: BigDoor Media Opens the Door to Success with AWS

BigDoor Media is a venture backed Seattle-based company that develops game mechanics for Websites and mobile applications. Staffed by self-described geeks and gamers, BigDoor Media created a software platform that builds video game mechanics specifically for Websites and mobile applications, with the goal of making more interesting Websites and applications that invoke a game-like feeling.

Since its inception, the company has run entirely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) services. Jeff Malek, Founder and CTO of BigDoor Media, explains that “after looking at all the various cloud providers at the time, we felt that AWS offered the most robust, feature-rich, secure, scalable, affordable, stable, and mature services.”

AWS services mesh perfectly with the company’s needs. The game mechanics are achieved via a RESTful API Web service that is completely built on AWS. BigDoor’s servers use a customized Debian AMI to run Apache and SQL. The company manages its network using assorted command-line tools via BASH scripts. Other Amazon components are Elastic Load Balancing, Auto-Scaling groups, and Amazon Elastic MapReduce. Each AWS component plays a major role in BigDoor’s solution—providing superior, reliable service with affordable pricing. BigDoor’s primary technology stack comprises a Python-Django application layer that runs on Apache application servers with MySQL running on the backend. Various Software Development Kits (SDKs) provide monitoring, and Amazon Elastic MapReduce tools are used for managing an Apache Hive cluster. Apache log queries are performed against the Hive cluster.

Cost-effectiveness and marketability are prime concerns for any company, but they are especially crucial for a young startup company like BigDoor. Malek relates an instance where AWS “saved the day.” After running an initial product offering for months, the company changed direction and turned out a totally different product, which launched three months later. To get the new product to market, the company scaled from a handful of static servers to more than 50 servers. As Malek explains, “If there’s a way to do this without AWS, we don’t know about it.” Without the scalability and flexibility of AWS, the new product would have taken much longer to get to market, which could have caused an economic hardship for the company.

The AWS partnership with BigDoor is so successful that Malek says, “we intend to continue to leverage all of what AWS has to offer, and will be spending resources on our Hive implementation next.” Malek sums up the relationship in three words: “We love AWS!”

To learn more, visit http://www.bigdoor.com/ This link will launch in a new browser window or tab. .