168Bits: Gaming Platform Migration from GCP to AWS with Multi-Account EKS Architecture
Executive Summary
168Bits, a fast-growing gaming company, migrated its entire infrastructure from Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to Amazon Web Services (AWS) under the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) to achieve enhanced scalability, optimized performance, and cost-effective resource management. DG Global Technology designed and executed a multi-account AWS architecture spanning four isolated environments — Streaming, Production, Staging, and Management — interconnected via AWS Transit Gateway and powered by Amazon EKS for container orchestration. The migration introduced Infrastructure as Code with Terraform, centralized monitoring with CloudWatch, and a comprehensive security baseline using GuardDuty, Firewall Manager, and CloudTrail. The engagement delivered a $720K ARR target on AWS, 99.9% uptime, full Multi-AZ resilience, and a modern cloud-native foundation aligned with the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
Customer Background
168Bits is a gaming company operating high-performance game servers and backend services for compute-intensive multiplayer workloads. The platform was originally hosted on Google Cloud Platform using Compute Engine virtual machines optimized for low-latency, high-throughput gaming experiences, with supporting services such as Cloud SQL and Cloud Storage for game assets and player data. As the company experienced growing player demand and expanded its gaming portfolio, the existing infrastructure became a bottleneck for rapid feature rollout, environment replication, and operational scaling.
Key Stats: High-performance gaming workloads, multiplayer game servers, hosted on GCP (Compute Engine, Cloud SQL, Cloud Storage), targeting four isolated AWS environments (Streaming, Production, Staging, Management)
Business Challenge
168Bits' gaming infrastructure on Google Cloud met baseline performance requirements but lacked modern architectural practices necessary for scalable growth, operational efficiency, and cost optimization. As player demand accelerated, the company encountered increasing operational complexity and a widening gap between business ambition and infrastructure capability.
Key Challenges:
- Limited Automation & Orchestration: Absence of centralized automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices made environment replication and consistent deployments slow and error-prone
- Fragmented Monitoring & Backup: Monitoring, backup, and logging strategies were underdeveloped, reducing visibility and increasing operational risk across environments
- Manual Scaling: Scalability on GCP required manual intervention, making it difficult to absorb traffic spikes during peak gameplay periods
- Operational Complexity: Lack of DevOps tooling and centralized governance restricted rapid development and deployment of new gaming features
- Disaster Recovery Gaps: Limited disaster recovery capabilities exposed the platform to availability risks that were unacceptable for a real-time gaming service
- Cost Inefficiency: No structured cost optimization mechanisms, making it difficult to control TCO as the player base and compute footprint grew
AWS Solution
DG Global Technology designed a secure, scalable, multi-account AWS architecture aligned with the AWS Well-Architected Framework and AWS MAP best practices. The solution segments workloads across four AWS accounts — Streaming, Production, Staging, and Management — each provisioned with its own VPC spanning multiple Availability Zones for fault tolerance, with AWS Transit Gateway providing centralized inter-VPC connectivity.
AWS Services Utilized
Amazon EKS
Container orchestration for gaming microservices — session management, matchmaking, player data APIs, chat, social features, and in-game purchase services — with Cluster Autoscaler and IRSA
Amazon EC2
High-performance compute instances for game servers across all environments, leveraging Compute Savings Plans (1-year, no upfront) for cost efficiency
Amazon Aurora MySQL
Multi-AZ relational database for player accounts, transaction logs, purchase history, game session records, and real-time matchmaking state
Amazon S3
Durable object storage for game assets, textures, audio, skins, static web content, logs, and backup datasets with lifecycle policies
AWS Transit Gateway & Route 53
Central networking hub interconnecting all environment VPCs and DNS management with public and private hosted zones for service discovery
AWS Security Suite
Firewall Manager, AWS WAF, CloudTrail, IAM, KMS, and Amazon CloudWatch for centralized security policy enforcement, audit logging, and observability
Architecture Highlights
- Multi-Account Strategy: Four isolated AWS accounts (Streaming, Production, Staging, Management) with operational boundaries, security control, and clear billing/reporting via AWS Organizations
- EKS-Based Compute: Containerized microservices running in private subnets across multiple AZs with managed node groups, Cluster Autoscaler, and ALB Ingress for external traffic routing
- Migration Tooling: AWS MGN for rehosting Compute Engine workloads to EC2, AWS DMS for migrating Cloud SQL to Aurora MySQL with minimal downtime
- Infrastructure as Code: Terraform-managed Landing Zone, CI/CD pipelines via Jenkins/GitLab, and Blue/Green deployment strategies for EKS workloads
- Security by Design: Centralized Firewall Manager, AWS WAF on ALBs, CloudTrail enabled across all accounts with logs centralized to a Management S3 bucket, and MFA-enforced IAM access
Implementation Details
Timeline: Mobilize phase July 30, 2025 – November 12, 2025 (full migration spanning Mobilize and Migrate phases)
Team Size: DG Global Technology engineers (Solution Architects, Security Specialists, Cloud Engineers, DevOps Engineers) + 168Bits Technical Point of Contact and application owners
Migration Strategy: Rehost (Compute Engine to EC2 via MGN) + Replatform (Cloud SQL to Aurora MySQL via DMS, Cloud Storage to S3) + Refactor (containerization to EKS)
Key Implementation Phases
- Discovery & Application Assessment: Inventoried GCP workloads across Streaming, Production, Staging, and Management environments, validated dependencies, and mapped to AWS-native services
- Landing Zone Design: Established multi-account structure via AWS Organizations and Control Tower with Transit Gateway for inter-VPC routing, NAT Gateway, and IAM governance
- Security & Compliance: Enabled Firewall Manager, AWS WAF, CloudTrail, IAM roles, and KMS encryption; mapped 168Bits' security and compliance requirements to AWS-native controls
- EKS Platform Buildout: Deployed EKS clusters in private subnets, configured managed node groups, ALB Ingress, and Pod Security Policies with IRSA-scoped permissions
- CI/CD & IaC: Hosted Jenkins and GitLab pipelines in the Management account, codified infrastructure with Terraform, and established Blue/Green deployment workflows
- Pilot Migration & UAT: Migrated pilot workloads, validated game server performance against GCP baseline, and conducted user acceptance testing with the 168Bits team
- Operational Readiness & Training: Delivered runbook development, incident management alignment, and AWS onboarding sessions for 168Bits operations and engineering teams
Results and Benefits
$720K
Validated ARR on AWS
Multi-AZ
High Availability
Quantifiable Results
- Validated ARR: AWS Pricing Calculator estimate of USD $720,432.24 validated by the AWS SA team for production and non-production workloads
- Scalable Container Platform: EKS with Cluster Autoscaler delivered elastic compute capacity for game servers, eliminating manual scaling during peak gameplay
- Multi-AZ Resilience: Aurora MySQL Multi-AZ and Multi-AZ EKS node groups achieved high availability and automatic failover
- Cost Optimization: Compute Savings Plans (1-year, no upfront) for steady-state EC2 fleet plus GP3 EBS volumes for right-sized storage
- Centralized Governance: Single pane of glass for security findings, audit logs, and cost reporting via the Management account
- Faster Deployments: Terraform IaC plus CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins/GitLab) reduced environment provisioning time from days to minutes
Business Impact
- Operational Agility: Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, and managed services shortened deployment cycles and freed engineers from manual provisioning
- Future-Ready Architecture: AWS ecosystem unlocked containerization, serverless options, and AI/ML services for the next phase of 168Bits' product roadmap
- Cost Predictability: Moved from fragmented GCP cost reporting to transparent AWS pricing with per-account cost allocation and Savings Plans coverage
- Improved Security Posture: Centralized security policy enforcement across all accounts with continuous audit trails and real-time threat detection
- Global Reach: AWS infrastructure footprint and compliance frameworks position 168Bits for expansion into new markets and regions
Migrating from Google Cloud to AWS with DG Global Technology gave us the modern cloud foundation we needed to scale. The multi-account architecture, EKS-based platform, and Transit Gateway networking solved real operational pain points — environment isolation, consistent deployments, and centralized security all at once. With Terraform and CI/CD in place, our team ships faster than ever, and the Multi-AZ Aurora and EKS clusters give us the resilience our players expect. The MAP-funded migration paid for itself in operational efficiency alone.
— Chief Technology Officer, 168Bits
About DG Global Technology
DG Global Technology is an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner and Managed Service Partner specializing in enterprise cloud transformation across ASEAN markets. With 50+ AWS certifications and 5+ years of partnership experience, we deliver comprehensive managed services including 24/7 monitoring, proactive optimization, security management, and cost governance.