Epic Games Develops Cross-Platform Games and Game Engine at Full Throttle with Cisco Catalyst 6500 Virtual Switching System

Cisco Solution Increases Productivity for Building ’Gears of War 2,’ ’Unreal Tournament 3’ and the Unreal Engine 3 with Complex, Graphic-Intensive Applications

SAN JOSE, Calif.- Cisco today announced that Epic Games Inc. has implemented the Cisco Catalyst® 6500 Virtual Switching System (VSS) 1440 to increase the productivity of its development team in the creation of cutting-edge games and cross-platform game-engine technology. For more than a decade, Epic Games has been known for developing top-selling games such as the award-winning “Gears of War” and “Unreal” series. Epic Games also develops the exceptional cross-platform game engine, Unreal Engine 3, a complete game-development framework for the Xbox 360TM, PlayStation®3 and DirectX10-equipped PCs. With Cisco Catalyst 6500 Virtual Switching System, Epic Games now enjoys better real-time game development application performance and simplified operational efficiencies with system virtualization of a rich set of intelligent network services.

“With the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Virtual Switching System, we’ve gained more than double the network performance and significantly increased our server availability. The Cisco VSS extends the performance of our desktops to equal that of a high-end server, which is unique yet business-critical in the development of cross-platform multiplayer gaming experiences,” said Shane Smith, senior information technology manager of Epic Games. “Our team is building the premier game development platform for the next generation right now, and with the demand for even more dynamic and personalized game experiences, our network must be high-performing, always available and scalable. The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Virtual Switching System is well-suited to fulfill these requirements.”

At Epic Games, the future of computer and video games hinges on improving Unreal Engine 3, a software-suite “engine” that powers everything a player sees and interacts with in the game world. With the exponential growth of computing power, Epic Games’ developers are improving Unreal Engine 3 to create even more realistic and interactive environments that allow players to be “present” in the game and personalize their experiences. Developing these games and game-engine technology requires extremely large file transfers, typically averaging more than 8 gigabytes.

Epic Games has benefited from its implementation of Cisco VSS in a number of ways:

* Performance has increased up to four times from upgrading switching interconnects to 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

* Connections can be aggregated across two core switches, which extends available bandwidth.

* Users reliably pull down data from Epic Games’ source management server at over 400 megabits per second (Mbps), whereas they used to experience limitations of approximately 150 Mbps during peak usage.

Epic Games’ development team, partners and customers span the United States, Europe and Asia. For more effective collaboration, the company has built its organization-wide network on Cisco Catalyst 6500, 4500 and 3750-E Series Switches. In addition, with Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances for best-in-class security and virtual private network (VPN) services, Epic Games has a high-performing and highly secure network environment in which to develop its top tier console and PC games.
Cisco Hits 1 Million Mark for 10 Gigabit Ethernet Ports Shipped

When the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Virtual Switching System 1440 was introduced in November 2007, Cisco also announced the Supervisor 720-10G module with two 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks for the Catalyst 6500 series. This module’s introduction completed the 10 Gigabit Ethernet offering across the Cisco Campus Communication Fabric portfolio of enterprise-class switches that span from core to access with the Catalyst 6500, Catalyst 4500-E and 3750-E Series.

“Cisco is addressing the demand for integrated networks and expanding the adoption of 10 Gigabit Ethernet as a key enabler of advanced communication and collaboration applications such as video and gaming,” said John McCool, senior vice president and general manager of the Cisco Data Center, Switching and Services Group. “Our solutions are designed to meet the demands of customers, such as Epic Games, who have helped us achieve the ”1 millionth port“ milestone in terms of total 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports shipped across our entire Cisco Catalyst Family data center and campus switching portfolio.”
Scalable System Bandwidth Capacity to 1.4 Tbps: Cisco 6500 VSS 1440

The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 provides 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks and IPv6 in hardware to enterprise and data center customers. The Cisco Catalyst 6500 VSS 1440 allows two Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches to look and act like a single switch. The Cisco VSS 1440 scales system bandwidth capacity to 1.4 terabytes per second by activating all available bandwidth across redundant Catalyst 6500 switches. It also increases operational efficiency by simplifying the network and reducing switch management overhead by at least 50 percent with single point of management for the Cisco Catalyst 6500 virtual switch. For more information please visit www.cisco.com/go/vss.

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