Solution Guide
Resilio for Game Developers & Studios

Executive Summary

Resilio is a software-only solution that allows game developers and studios to accelerate game development and testing. It utilizes a distributed file transfer architecture to achieve faster build distribution and data synchronization across various locations.

Key benefits of Resilio include:

• Faster build distribution times (up to 10x faster than conventional tools)
  

• Reduced testing time
  

• Improved productivity for development teams
  

• Cost savings through efficient data transfer and infrastructure utilization
  

Resilio works by establishing a network of agents across different locations. These agents collaborate to distribute and synchronize files, ensuring that teams have the latest builds and assets whenever needed. Resilio also offers caching functionalities to store frequently accessed data locally, further improving access speeds.
‍

Conventional Approaches

Conventional tools are limited by point-to-point and hub-and-spoke architectures, which are performance bottlenecks for DevOps, Engineering, IT, and QA testing.

Global File Systems (GFS)

• Expensive and constrained by hub-and-spoke topologies
  

• Build and asset distribution, sync, and updates flow through a hub, which is a performance bottleneck 
  

Point-to-point tools do not scale beyond 2 endpoints

• Point-to-point tools do not scale beyond 2 endpoints
  

• Robocopy, Rsync, Unison, et al, rely on TCP and limit transfers to 2 systemsTools from Aspera and Signiant, while UDP-based, are also constrained by point-to-point and do not scale
  

DFS Replication (DFSR)

• ‍Client/server is unreliable, performs poorly, and introduces unnecessary risk of data corruption and troubleshooting complexity 
  ‍
  

The Resilio Approach

DevOps, engineering, IT, and playtesting teams use Resilio in the most time- and talent-intensive game development companies and studios. We work closely with our customers to meet their requirements and deliver complex games on time—using existing IT and cloud infrastructure. 

‍Our approach includes:

Speed and Scale

• Resilio efficiently transfers and synchronizes files of any size and type in parallel across endpoints and nodes you define.
  

• A new scale-out caching gateway enables high-performance storage caching across locations.  
  

• We synchronize millions of files or objects in real-time or on-demand without latency and loss.
  

Automation

• Resilio is API-driven and automation-ready for easy operations.
  

• Our platform automates routine tasks through policies, scripting, and APIs.
  

• Automated cache management (hydration, dehydration, and file & folder pinning) minimizes transfer times and ensures the right teams have the right builds & assets.
  

Reliability & Security

• Resilio combines P2P with dynamic routing and fault tolerance to deliver the most resilient and fault-tolerant file delivery system available.
  

• Additionally, our team is as dependable as the platform itself, thanks to 24x7 global support to ensure users have access to help whenever they need it.
  

• Resilio does not rely on third-party security services or VPNs, so security and encryption are built in end-to-end.
  ‍
  

Key Benefits

Resilio is easy to operate at any scale. DevOps, IT, engineering, and QA teams can do more in fixed time frames and improve productivity. Resilio helps companies deliver complex games in fixed time frames using existing infrastructure.

“Our engineers deployed a successful test version in an hour—without reading a ton of manuals. Resilio delivered the best result of all the solutions we tried.”
— Roman Sakno, Enterprise Architect at  Wargaming

Productivity wins

Operational wins

ROI: Deliver complex games on time and under budget

Use Cases

Distributed Global File System using Object Storage

Resilio offers a complementary solution and, in some cases, an alternative to global file systems. With new capabilities for automated multi-site caching and storage, customers can extend their investments in deployed storage for various game development and QA use cases.

In one use case, a golden copy of a build can be maintained on-prem—using any NAS or object storage system. Resilio provides file-level access to objects—making objects available as files within and across sites at speeds you define. 

Caching automation policies can be combined with push scenarios—such as full synchronization—where a complete or partial data set is synchronized with a remote cache in a remote site. This synchronization can be combined with multiple cloud regions or other data centers. Customers may choose to synchronize primary storage systems bidirectionally, such that a change could be made to any primary store and reflected in different sites.  

Another scenario is to pull files on-demand. In this scenario, a remote cache or remote agent can pull files. This can be user- or application-driven through a capability called transparent selective sync—or automated based on a file caching policy.  

The Resilio platform provides tremendous efficiency for ensuring the right files, such as builds and assets, are delivered to the right place (any other Resilio agent) at the right time—either through a push or pull synchronization or via automated file caching policies.
‍

Central Archive Accessible Everywhere

Resilio provides high-performance file access to high-capacity storage (composed of any file, block, and object storage). Teams and operators can thus centrally store and make available hundreds of millions of builds and assets—at low cost—across any number of locations. Resilio can then be used to efficiently store, distribute, synchronize, and share builds and assets. In one scenario, you could define two primary storage systems: one in an on-prem data center as JBOD or NAS and another in the public cloud as object storage.

When a build is ready, it can be synchronized in real-time bidirectionally between the two primary storage systems and made available for distribution across remote sites and teams. A key advantage of Resilio is controlling which builds and associated assets go to each remote site or team. You can deliver specific builds to each remote site. 

For example, one remote studio may be responsible for PC testing, and the other site may be responsible for Xbox console playtesting. By setting a caching policy for each site, you can specify which builds and assets go to each site.

The team testing PCs will receive the PC installer and exclude the Xbox-related testing kit and materials, and vice versa. Or you may have one facility performing manual QA and another running a separate, automated test in the cloud.  

With Resilio, creating a file policy specifying the cache size at each remote site and file types to be pulled and cached is easy. By setting file policies for each gateway at each site, each studio could have its own policy. This way, you can pre-cache and pin files based on location, workflow, or job function.

Once a build is staged, you can set a hydration policy to download files of specific types to each remote caching location. Upon completion, a dehydration policy purges the cache. You can include and exclude specific files and folders in each cache and keep certain files “pinned” to the cache for reuse. 

Benefits of using Resilio as a build and asset archive include:

• WAN optimization: Allocated bandwidth to each site down to the device-level. Resilio achieves full utilization of allocated bandwidth across any network.  Minimize transferred data: Your caching policy determines what files are delivered where. Once a project is complete, policies dehydrate the cache to free up space automatically. API-controlled functions based on policies and triggers: All functions can be scripted, automated through an API, or performed through the UI.
  

• Minimize transferred data: Your caching policy determines what files are delivered where. Once a project is complete, policies dehydrate the cache to free up space automatically. 
  

• API-controlled functions based on policies and triggers: All functions can be scripted, automated through an API, or performed through the UI.
  ‍
  

Hybrid Work

Resilio offers unified file access for hybrid work. Your teams can be anywhere—in the office or working remotely. All users—DevOps, engineers, IT, QA—maintain the same user experience across all locations. 

There are two primary use cases in hybrid work: push and pull. In the automated push scenario, you can efficiently distribute and stage builds for remote teams based on policies. You can automatically distribute files to your remote teams based on policies and job functions in this scenario.  

End-users run a Resilio agent on their device and operating system, including Windows, macOS, or Linux. Hybrid work caching transforms an end-user desktop or workstation into a smart caching station.

In gaming, builds, assets, and artifacts of varying sizes and types need to be readily accessible to teams located anywhere.

For hybrid work, Resilio enables:

• Unified and resilient access to files and folders from any device and location
  

• Many-to-many collaborations and iterations within and across teams 
  

• Predictable transfer and synchronization times within and across teams
  

• WAN optimization to overcome latency and packet loss associated with distance
  

• Rapid and easy access to files of any size type—from massive builds to many smaller artifacts
  

• Smart caching on-demand so that files can be cached and pinned for efficient reuse
  ‍
  

Build and Asset Distribution

Using Resilio, a single job can automate and (optionally) synchronize build distribution across unlimited locations and up to thousands of endpoints. DevOps, for example, can use their existing CI/CD pipelines, including Jenkins, TeamCity, and similar solutions.

Resilio helps DevOps and QA teams:

• Reduce iteration time from dev to test
  

• Collaborate across distributed studios
  

• Accelerate game release schedules
  

• Facilitate cloud adoption 
  

• Leverage existing infrastructure investments in storage, networking, and other resources
  

DevOps uses Resilio within their CI/CD pipeline. When a build is ready, Resilio offers highly efficient distribution from one-to-many and many-to-many across the WAN or LAN. Builds can be automatically transferred and synchronized to any number of locations in about the same time it takes to distribute one source build to one destination. Resilio allows you the flexibility to automate the process or distribute builds on a schedule or on-demand. 

Through its P2P architecture, Resilio enables fluid scale-out from one-to-many target destinations or in a full mesh (many-to-many). It simplifies and speeds up build distribution for manual and automated playtesting across any location, including the cloud.  

"The nightly builds that we pump out involve a large amount of data. Getting that synced to every QA team in each studio proved to be quite difficult with the software we had. With Resilio, as soon as our build servers have a build ready, it’s using the entire throughput of our gigabit lines to distribute it to the other studios. So QA can start in the morning on a fresh build."
— Octaaf Fieremans, producer at  Larian Studios

When combined with the Resilio caching gateway, the platform ensures the right teams always have the right files—at the right time. Bandwidth can be allocated to control speeds over WANs and take full advantage of the available bandwidth within a local network. Resilio offers complete bandwidth control—to utilize all allocated bandwidth and harness the resources of all agents collectively participating in a distribution or sync job. Resilio can distribute up to thousands of builds of any size across as many endpoints as are available for the given job.

DevOps and game testers continue working with their familiar tools and utilizing their preferred methodologies. Through a single job in the Resilio management console and optional settings for file caching, teams can rapidly distribute, iterate, and work from anywhere.
‍

Burst to LAN

Another use case is efficient transfer and multi-directional sync across local-area networks. Resilio rapidly distributes and synchronizes builds in parallel across up to thousands of nodes—which can boost performance by 10x and more.

From an operational perspective, Resilio maximizes storage efficiency. You can use any type of storage (file, block, or object) and mix-and-match storage configurations (direct-attached, NAS, or SAN). It’s now possible to achieve faster distribution using existing infrastructure and extend the life of deployed hardware.

Teams are more productive. Instead of waiting on builds, they can be iterating and immediately testing the latest builds.  In one scenario, a build server may be hosted on the LAN. A Resilio agent on the server communicates with other compute nodes running Resilio agents to distribute and synchronize files in a one-to-many or many-to-many full mesh. In this scenario, Resilio offers unprecedented speed and scale to burst transfers across the LAN. 

Resilio helps DevOps dramatically reduce infrastructure costs while delivering builds faster than ever, even to remote development teams.

Technical Advantages

The Resilio solution for game developers and studios offers many technical advantages and capabilities.

Efficiency and file data awareness

Automation-ready cache management

Scale-out caching gateway

Built-in WAN optimization

Push or pull workflows for maximum efficiency and timeliness

Auto-scale distribution and synchronization

Reliability across any network

End-to-end security and data integrity

Next Steps

The Resilio platform stands as a transformative solution for the gaming industry, offering a potent blend of speed, scalability, automation, resiliency, and security. Resilio designed the solution to meet the unique challenges of game development. By halving build distribution times and seamlessly integrating with any IT infrastructure, Resilio accelerates development cycles while significantly reducing operational costs. 

Game industry customers are seeing:

• Faster build distribution times—up to 10x faster than conventional tools
  

• Reduced iteration time from development to test
  

• Improved productivity for development, engineering, testing, and IT 
  

• Cost savings through efficient data transfer and infrastructure utilization
  

Through high-performance capabilities, automation-friendly features, unified access across hybrid environments, and robust security and dependability, Resilio provides game developers and DevOps teams with the essential tools and peace of mind to deliver quality games without compromise.