Players of "EVE Online," the world's largest massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), are expected to get faster and more reliable web-based gaming and subscriber services, thanks to the virtualization of game developer CCP's data center in London.

Cisco® Application Control Engine (ACE) technology will help ensure that registration, background information, access to related music and video, purchases of merchandise from EVE-Online.com, and other support services are more reliable and respond quickly even when demand is heavy.

The Cisco technology employs virtual partitioning to create server resource segmentation and isolation so that multiple website applications can be managed and shared across CCP's 18 servers in its London data center. Using the network itself as the intermediary between abstracted computing and storage resources and applications means that they can perform as efficiently as possible, connecting to devices and resources as they are needed.

Cisco's data center virtualization will also help CCP manage the growing number of "EVE Online" subscribers and help make controlling and managing web server applications more efficient. "EVE" has had more than 42,000 concurrent players in the same virtual world and can support up to 100,000 players in real time. Similar multiplay online games usually achieve around 1,000 concurrent plays in a single scenario. "EVE" offers a 3D galaxy of 5,000 solar systems and the choice of four playable races. It has been developed by CCP, a company with 300 employees headquartered in Iceland.

Read the complete announcement.