KLab is an entertainment content brand that delivers an array of exciting online mobile games to users all across the globe. Guns N' Buddies is a hybrid casual game developed by KLab, an action RPG that combines the accessibility of casual games with the depth and strategy of comprehensive shooting games.

As the game's popularity surged, KLab required infrastructure capable of handling a massive number of concurrent users with high scalability and reliability. However, the existing setup faced rising annual operational costs that constrained business growth and limited flexibility for expansion. Additionally, high dependency on the existing environment required thorough technical verification to ensure a smooth migration to a more scalable cloud platform.

Alibaba Cloud emerged as the ideal partner, offering global scalability, intelligent cost optimization, and seamless migration capabilities tailored to KLab's needs.

● Cost Optimization: Alibaba Cloud offers flexible, transparent pricing models, enabling cost-efficient resource utilization without compromising performance. By utilizing only the necessary resources on demand and minimizing charges for idle resources help reduce unnecessary spending outside of traffic spikes. Further, leveraging AI-powered cost analysis and optimization tools, such as the "Cloud Governance Center" offered by Alibaba Cloud, provides continuous cost visibility and drives ongoing optimization.

● High Compatibility with Existing Systems and Smooth Migration: Alibaba Cloud offers comprehensive cloud and enterprise-grade services that ensure seamless operational continuity. Its high compatibility with existing systems was a key factor in the migration decision. Alibaba Cloud also offers equivalent services across all major cloud solutions. For instance, application servers can be migrated to Alibaba Cloud's Elastic Compute Service (ECS), while object storage can be seamlessly migrated to Alibaba Cloud's Object Storage Service (OSS). This allows the system configuration to be migrated with minimal modifications. This high level of compatibility enables maximum utilization of existing technical assets, significantly reducing the learning costs for engineers and the costs associated with system modifications.

The production environment is deployed on Alibaba Cloud in the US (Virginia) region. User traffic is received from the edge with low latency via the Global Accelerator (GA). The Application Load Balancer (ALB) manages HTTPS termination and intelligent path-based routing. The HAProxy layer, built on ECS, handles detailed routing and circuit breaker control, distributing traffic efficiently to microservices running on Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK).

Persistent data for microservices is stored in ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL (Serverless mode), enhanced by Tair (Redis® OSS-Compatible) serving as the high-speed caching layer. Static content is stored in Object Storage Service (OSS). Lifecycle management automatically transitions infrequently accessed data to Infrequent Access (IA) or Archive storage class. These assets were delivered to players worldwide with low latency via the Alibaba Cloud CDN.

By migrating to Alibaba Cloud and leveraging the AI-powered Cloud Governance Center, KLab realized measurable business and operational outcomes.

● AI-driven cost analysis and governance reduced unnecessary cloud spending and freed the budget for strategic activities.

● The platform handled massive concurrent users with consistent, low-latency performance during peak traffic.

● Core workloads migrated with minimal modifications while maintaining operational continuity; automated monitoring and resource management reduced technical overheads.

Leveraging Alibaba Cloud in this project helped KLab to achieve the significant objectives, such as reducing costs and ensuring stable operation, marking it as a successful partnership. KLab also benefited from a powerful new, cost-effective option provided by Alibaba Cloud to complement the existing technology infrastructure.

Moving forward, KLab plans to build upon these insights by strategically selecting the most suitable cloud environment for each new product, ensuring faster deployment cycles, improved cost efficiency, and sustained operational excellence.