Zynga’s Z-Cloud Infrastructure

Cloud Computing when done right can be a source of significant competitive advantage.

Case in point Zynga, the social gaming company.

Zynga, founded in 2007, is the world’s largest social game developer with more than 250 million monthly active users playing their games, which include CityVille, FarmVille, FrontierVille, Words With Friends, Mafia Wars, Zynga Poker, Café World and Treasure Isle.

Zynga games are available on a number of global platforms including Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, the iPad and iPhone, and Android devices.

Zynga makes most of its revenue by serving the 800m audience on Facebook.

Social games powered by Facebook represent a new form of entertainment that will capture an increasing proportion of consumer leisure time.  The potential is huge.  One data point… my 72 year old mother-in law spends hours playing games on her iPad.

Social games are the most popular applications on Facebook and will be, a key driver of engagement on social networks, and increasingly on mobile platforms.

Games have become the second most popular internet activity based on time spent, and have even surpassed email.

To support this growth, Zynga  created a scalable hybrid cloud-based server and network infrastructure that enables it to deliver games to millions of players simultaneously with high levels of performance and reliability.