TL; DR: DevOps practices are a good strategy for the fast-paced iGaming development, and AWS is an enormous toolbox with services that can strengthen this approach. Adjusting to both DevOps and AWS use will take a lot of planning and patience for first-timers, but with proper research and transparent communication the combination of the two will help your iGaming development reach new heights. 

The 2024 iGaming landscape is a bit like the Wild West, with new companies entering the market every day as the established providers do their best to stay on top. Creating new content in this environment puts a lot of pressure on developers to outshine their competition. DevOps practices can help in this race by breaking down silos between development and operations teams, fostering collaboration, and automating various processes. 

Among cloud providers, Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a comprehensive suite of tools and services tailored to DevOps workflows. This article explores the best DevOps practices in the iGaming industry and how AWS tools and services can be leveraged to optimize game development. 

The DevOps approach, defined by the merger of Development and Operations teams, seems like the perfect framework for iGaming studios.  

We have previously discussed the rapid pace of this industry, where game development pipelines need to happen faster, the competition is harsher, and the best studios are sure to have several projects in production at once.  

DevOps prevents wasted time from eternal back-and-forths between Development and Operations. Without it, Operations would take too long to act on feedback for game A, since they would have already started testing game B.  

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Most DevOps qualities will help to optimize any project, gaming or otherwise. 

Now, let’s evaluate which features of this approach are best suited to support iGaming development specifically. 

Aside from creating the games, one of the key challenges in iGaming is the need to maintain continuous availability of services, especially during peak periods of activity such as major sporting events or holidays. DevOps helps address this challenge by enabling teams to automate deployment processes and rapidly respond to incidents.

iGaming is a highly competitive industry, where any lapse in your game’s quality can encourage a number of players to choose your competitor’s product. Thankfully, DevOps is a great course of action for continuous testing.  

It is also a fast-paced industry, where new trends emerge every month. If you wanted to improve your title in the middle of development by adapting to the latest fashions, waterfall approach would never allow that, and even agile may not grant you the necessary flexibility, but DevOps’ integrated approach (and its acceptance of perpetual changes) would be the perfect strategy.  

DevOps facilitates feedback and open communication between team members during the development process, but it can also help you make automated systems for capturing player feedback. Understanding your audience as you update and grow your portfolio is key to long-term iGaming player retention. DevOps allows studios to not only collect actual player responses, but to install algorithms that will track the players’ in-game behavior, showing features that resonate with them the best.

The more games you can release, the better your chances of staying at the top in the cutthroat iGaming hierarchy. But how does one consistently put out new iGaming content without falling into the toxic crunch time routines? The answer is automation. DevOps is great for automating testing, deployment, compliance checks, and even the entire game build and distribution. 

With more than 200 cloud services in its belt, AWS offers a comprehensive suite of tools tailored to DevOps workflows. This selection will enable your teams to automate infrastructure provisioning, implement continuous integration and delivery pipelines, and monitor game performance in real time. With pay-as-you-go pricing and global scalability, AWS is flexible enough to support DevOps practices in iGaming.  

Here is an overview of specific tools that DevOps game developers will find especially useful: 

• AWS CloudFormation. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) allows developers to define and provision AWS infrastructure using code. CloudFormation automates the creation and management of game infrastructure through the use of declarative templates. This tool is especially useful for making repeatable environments, or environments with controlled minimal changes, as you will edit them inside the convenient stacks of code. 
• AWS CodePipeline. Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) service automates the build, test, and deployment processes. CodePipeline allows teams to automate the release of game changes, reducing the risk of errors and speeding up time to market. 
• AWS CodeBuild. This fully managed build service compiles source code, runs tests, and produces deployable artifacts. This tool allows DevOps software developers to “focus more on writing code and less on managing build infrastructure”. 
• AWS CloudWatch. Monitoring and observability service that provides real-time insights into the performance and health of AWS resources. Updated and functional AWS tools are the foundation for smooth development process.  
• AWS Auto Scaling. This tool automatically adjusts the number of EC2 instances (virtual servers provided by AWS that allow users to run applications in the cloud) or other resources based on demand. Auto Scaling helps iGaming companies maintain smooth performance, even during peak periods of activity, by dynamically scaling resources up or down as needed. 
• AWS Elastic Load Balancing. Service that distributes incoming traffic across multiple EC2 instances or other resources to ensure high availability and fault tolerance. The difference between this tool and Auto Scaling lies in their approach: ELB automatically scales resources horizontally by adding or removing instances, but Auto Scaling scales resources both horizontally and vertically, adjusting capacity. Or, as GeeksForGeeks put it, “Auto Scaling helps to ensure the optimal use of resources, while Load Balancer helps to distribute the workload evenly”. 
• AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). This service deals with the security side of iGaming development, enabling teams to manage user identities and permissions. IAM allows iGaming companies to control access to AWS resources, helping ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and generally protecting your development data. 
• AWS Key Management Service (KMS). This tool makes it easy to create and manage encryption keys for protecting sensitive data. KMS integrates with other AWS services, such as S3 and RDS, allowing iGaming companies to encrypt data at rest and in transit, enhancing security. 

While DevOps has numerous benefits, if this is your studio’s first time using it after waterfall or agile, you may still face some growing pains. To ensure successful implementation of DevOps practices in iGaming with AWS, consider the following tips.

A development strategy that is efficient due to open communication cannot function if your corporate culture is not very collaborative. Establish a good rapport between development and operations teams to break down silos and promote continuous improvement. Inspire your employees to regularly check in with each other and ensure they have a good understanding of their own processes and what tasks others excel at. Set an example by celebrating small victories from development and operations alike, creating a climate of mutual appreciation and respect. 

AWS constantly rolls out improvements for its services. Stay up to date with the latest features, and regularly review and optimize AWS resources to ensure cost-effectiveness and performance. Make sure that you are reading the most recent documentation particularly when it comes to downloadable AWS whitepapers – older versions will get archived and replaced with newer versions online.

DevOps is a great strategy for continuous testing, but you will still need to provide a solid foundation for good quality assurance. Prioritize automated testing as part of the CI/CD pipeline to catch bugs and issues early in the development process and ensure software reliability, but do not overlook human-driven A/B testing either.

On the other hand, make your interactions with beta testers purposeful and insightful. Inspire brave and creative answers to the question of how to improve your game. If some of the suggestions cannot be implemented into the current project, apply them for the betterment of your next release.

Monitor and analyze performance metrics by setting up alert systems to track KPIs and detect performance issues in real time. This will allow for rapid response and resolution, and will make the entire game development process easier to control.

No game development project is ever stress-free, and this is especially true for an iGaming project. As you embark on your AWS DevOps journey, be prepared for the following complications:

• Compliance and regulatory concerns. iGaming companies must navigate complex regulatory landscapes that differ from country to country. AWS is known for its global reach and regulatory compliance across the board, but still, this need to adapt to  industry standards may delay and complicate the implementation of DevOps workflows.
• Cost optimization strategies. While AWS offers pay-as-you-go pricing and cost-effective services, iGaming companies can still get carried away when faced with its feast of features. Be mindful of your expenses, or let AWS help you with budgeting solutions like Cost Explorer or AWS Budgets. These may be an initial investment, but these tools can help you save a lot of money down the line.
• Integration with existing systems. If you did not previously use AWS, you are likely to have some existing legacy systems and applications that need to be integrated with AWS services. This can present technical challenges and will require careful planning and execution.

The high-stakes nature of iGaming development is a fact of modern reality, and it does not seem like the competition will slow down anytime soon. New content floods the market every day, competing for players’ attention; developers must adapt and explore various strategies offered by providers.

DevOps practices can give iGaming companies a powerful framework for improving their game development. Powered by AWS, these practices combine a flexible approach with a host of tools and services that accelerate the development process even further. If it is your company’s first time using either DevOps or AWS, a period of adaptation is in order, but the reward is faster and better development in an industry that values speed and efficiency above all else.

Innovecs Games is fascinated by the evolution of the iGaming industry, and we have years of experience working with AWS. If this article has stirred up questions about DevOps, Amazon Web Services for game development, or iGaming, feel free to reach out and we will gladly consult you.