"ZA SERVERS:
1) Here is a quick reason why there will not be any ZA-based servers soon.
2) Here is the reason Australia & Oceania got servers so quickly.
Since there are so many posts regarding ZA servers on this group I've decided to address it so that every tom dick & t-shirt printer out there can understand it.
PUBG by BlueHole Inc. hosts their own servers for the following reasons:
1) Early Access
2) To get controlled feedback during Early Access 3) Less chance for hackers to reverse engineer since they don't have server side code 4) Server update ring (Servicing & Patching model). 5) Server side information passed via clients, etc etc etc
They make use of AMAZON AWS PUBLIC CLOUD computing to create on-demand instances of gaming servers. On demand public computing you generally pay for the resource that you utilize during any given time, etc measured over an hour. If you pay for 10 GB storage, 4 GB RAM (ram used) and 16 GHz, you would for example only pay $0.80 if you used it for 45mins in a 60minute window frame.
This is not like traditional gaming servers, such as Counter-Strike / ARMA3. Where you fire up a dedicated server file on a physical or virtual machine where in return it runs 24/7/365 until someone shuts it down or reboots the server. Traditional methods also include that the costs are covered by the server hosting provider and they generally have to pay for the server power & bandwidth, public IP and aircon measured over a month. (E.g. $100 PM for a 8core / 32 GB / 120GB SSD with 1 public IP server).
PUGB makes use of rapid instance deployments and I assume here, they probably make use of containerized services (and not Virtual machines). This allows them to only create a server for e.g. 2-100 players WHEN REQUIRED in a matter of seconds. Once the round/game is done this container goes offline again and therefor they only pay money for the duration it was online, i.e the round.
Now why is there no local server? PUGB coded their rapid instance server deployments to operate in AWS, make it use of AMAZON AWS API, Containers, VM's, IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) , PaaS (Platform as a service) or what not, it still only runs on AWS.
South Africa nor Africa has any AMAZON AWS Data Centres, yes AMAZON AWS EC2 gets supported from Cape Town where it was built back in 2004, however there is no physical space to host it. Thus PUGB can not deploy a server to the South Africa Region.
So why did Australia and Oceania got a server so quickly? Because both of them have AMAZON AWS Datacenters, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney. It literally takes them less than 60 seconds to add a line of code to allow them to deploy to new regions. Hence it was so easy for them to add those 2 regions to PUGB, nothing to do with the "vast amount of support" since it is NO effort for them to deploy there.
There are ways that ZA can host a server
1) wait until Amazon AWS eventually gets build here (see bottom paragraph).
2) If they use container services, PUGB can encrypt & secure the container so that no unauthorized users, not even the server owner can see the code of the container and the data it has inside of it. Containser services are also made easy in the new Iteration of Microsoft Server 2016. With Microsoft releasing Server 2016 NANO aimed at container services such as DOCKER.
3) They can make server hosting accessible to everyone but that will probably only after Early Access once it hits retail. I know PlayerUnknown is a big anti hacker supporter so he might keep his cards against his chest with server files. With that being said ...
4) BlueHole Inc can probably work out a non-disclosure agreement with multiple reputable hosting companies which some of them will hopefully have a footprint in ZA and host the game via that channel.
BlueHost also have no revenue generating stream such as micro transactions to keep them afloat while they have to pay their own server fees, that will probably force their hand to eventually allow for private servers since they dont want an ongoing server cost expense.
So can we please stop with the petitions and ramblings about ZA servers, 99% of the threads on here are about it. Even the pinned topic.
Amazon AWS will not open a data center in South Africa as long as there is only one energy Provider (ESKOM). It requires two completely unaffiliated and in competition providers before it will open a DC since they require two independent energy providers. So ultimately your issue with getting PUGB in ZA is the ANC/Guptas and their hold on the ZA energy.
Regards
jeeva (Certified in The Open Group Architecture Forum for Enterprise Architects, Amazon AWS System Admin, Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect & Google Cloud Compute)."
