For several years HBO had been relying on a third party to help deliver programming to viewers on demand. While the platform worked well under ordinary loads, there were issues with the massive scaling required when Game of Thrones aired. The network made a decision to bring streaming capability into the company and develop its own comprehensive streaming platform. Centralizing the technology would improve efficiency and take the company in a better strategic direction for other deployments moving forward. The key to a successful launch of the new service was ensuring instant scalability to support viewer demand. In order to make that happen, HBO needed extensive load testing capabilities for the new platform.
In searching for the right partner, HBO selected Apica to help with load testing its new platform based on Apica’s proven platform scalability and long experience in advanced enterprise testing. Apica’s load testing abilities give companies complete visibility into the expected performance of applications and services in the most demanding circumstances, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the customer experience.
The release of the final season of Game of Thrones has been a huge technical success for HBO. With 10+ million viewers starting streaming in same second it was crucial for Apica to load test the site before release. The ability to validate infrastructure scaling and systems resilience is key result of using Apica’s test platform.
Excerpt from Apica CEO Sven Hammar's blog on apicasystems.com