Activision’s Switch to Oracle® Unbreakable Linux Support Cuts Costs By 65 Percent

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., LINUXWORLD.-To improve the quality of its technical support for Linux and lower the total cost of ownership for its IT environment, Activision Inc., (Nasdaq: ATVI), a leader in interactive entertainment products, has switched to Oracle Unbreakable Linux support. The switch to Oracle® Unbreakable Linux has lowered Activision’s Linux support costs by more than 65 percent while helping to ensure its consumer Web sites and key development systems continue to scale and meet increasingly demanding performance requirements.

Creator of popular video games including the Guitar Hero(TM), Tony Hawk and Call of Duty® titles, Activision provides a diverse portfolio of gaming products that span categories including action/adventure, action sports, racing, role-playing, simulation, first-person action and strategy. Activision runs key business operations, including ERP, consumer Web sites and IT development, utilizing a complete software stack from Oracle including Oracle Database, the Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Enterprise Manager and Hyperion System 9, including Hyperion System 9 Planning, as well as Hyperion System 9 BI+ and Essbase Analytics. The company also plans to implement Oracle Real Application Clusters and Oracle Identity Management, a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware.

Activision recently switched its Linux support from Red Hat to Oracle Unbreakable Linux. The migration took under 10 minutes, simply by pointing its Linux systems to the Unbreakable Linux Network and downloading patches and updates when necessary. This move has significantly reduced Activision’s support costs and improved efficiencies through a single point of contact for its software support.

“When we heard about the Oracle Unbreakable Linux support program we were ecstatic,” said Niel Armstrong, vice president Information Technology, Activision. “From previous experience with Oracle’s technical support team, we knew their Linux support would provide quick, expert responses, and the price was too good to ignore. Oracle Unbreakable Linux brings enterprise-quality support to our Linux environment and ties in nicely with our overall Oracle strategy.”

Activision’s Web sites, which receive more than 20 million unique visitors annually, serve as the focal point for generating consumer demand, and have become increasingly strategic to its business. With each new game, record-breaking traffic and data volumes result in peak loads of tens of terabytes of data, which must be sustained for multiple weeks. To help ensure its Web sites perform well 24/7 and handle these intense peak loads seamlessly, Activision relies on Linux and Oracle Unbreakable Linux support. The combination has allowed Activision to take their Web sites to a new level of scale and flexibility, transforming how they reach consumers. A key driver in Activision’s decision to move to Oracle Unbreakable Linux support was the high-caliber expertise and responsiveness of the Oracle support team.

“Providing enterprise-quality Linux support while helping our customers reduce IT costs is what the Oracle Unbreakable Linux support program is all about,” said Monica Kumar, senior director, Linux and Open Source Product Marketing, Oracle. “Activision exemplifies this goal and reinforces Oracle’s commitment to making Linux better for all users.”

Oracle Unbreakable Linux support is also key to Activision’s collaborative development environment, where digital media assets are shared by Activision and its partners from different studios who work together to create games. For load balancing and efficient scaling, Activision adds Linux servers as their large digital asset repository expands.