Chess.com makes a smart move to optimize its global potential with DoiT

May 2022

The world's number one chess platform scales to 90 million users with DoiT's cloud expertise and unified platform visibility

5x: increase in daily active users
10 million: daily games hosted
300,000: connections per second handled

“The DoiT Cloud Management Platform gives us a unified view of multiple Google Cloud accounts and our other cloud providers on one panel. I also like the anomaly alerts, which show spikes in your cloud billing across our projects.”
Grzegorz Dlugolecki
Lead Cloud and Kubernetes Engineer, Chess.com

The Challenge

Chess.com needed to rapidly scale their infrastructure to handle explosive growth during COVID-19. Traffic quadrupled in a short period, requiring hyperresponsive technology partners who could help them innovate at high speed while optimizing their global platform for 90 million users.

The Solution

DoiT provided instant support through dedicated Slack channels and direct engineer access. They helped Chess.com migrate to Google Cloud, optimize network performance for minimal latency, and gain unified visibility across multiple cloud accounts through DoiT's platform.

Results

Achieved instant support with responses often within 15 minutes through dedicated channels
Resolved critical networking issues handling 300,000 connections per second with minimal latency
Gained unified view of multiple Google Cloud accounts and cloud providers on one platform
Implemented secure access for 400 remote employees across 40 countries without VPN

Building future-proof global infrastructure

Chess.com began working with DoiT in March 2020, coinciding with their migration to Google Cloud and the start of COVID-19. Google introduced Chess.com to DoiT, and the team quickly discovered that DoiT shared the global growth outlook that drew Chess.com to Google Cloud. They opted to migrate infrastructure to Google Cloud because its global approach to networks and projects better mirrored theirs, and DoiT had the inside knowledge and scaling experience they needed.

Providing answers fast with dedicated support

Following quick onboarding to DoiT systems, Chess.com saw immediate improvements in communication. They gained almost instant answers through dedicated Slack channels, direct access to DoiT engineers via Google Meet, and fast ticketing responses often within 15 minutes. This hyperresponsive support was crucial for their high-speed deployment and provisioning needs.

Taking latency out of the game

Minimizing technical delays between chess moves is crucial for online play. Chess.com looks at global server distribution for optimal routing to minimize latency, with DoiT providing ongoing advice and support. When Chess.com experienced random 100% CPU issues impacting critical services, DoiT quickly solved the problem by showing improvements to low-level network tuning for handling 300,000 connections per second.

Holistic view of all chess pieces

Chess.com runs complex systems that analyze games, detect cheating, and recommend improvements across multiple cloud services. DoiT's technology platform helps Chess.com get a clearer picture of cloud use and billing with a unified view of multiple Google Cloud accounts and other cloud providers on one panel. Anomaly alerts highlight spikes in cloud billing across projects, showing non-linear cost increases.

Securing a remote global team

DoiT helps Chess.com maintain oversight of their virtual global team of 400 employees across 40 countries. Using Google Cloud Identity Platform, employees get secure access to services from public networks without VPN. DoiT provides a ticketing system with secure temporary credentials for engineers, restricting access to specific projects without permanent infrastructure permissions.

Continuous learning and future innovation

Chess.com has constant access to DoiT's insider knowledge of Google Cloud best practices. DoiT shows optimal architectures for services like Cloud BigTable and BigQuery, helping structure queries to limit scanning and reduce costs. With direct Google Cloud communication, DoiT provides information on upcoming features and feasibility assessments, saving time and energy while supporting new initiatives like chess leagues and machine learning improvements.

See how DoiT helps cloud teams control spend

Explore how DoiT Cloud Intelligence helps teams improve visibility, governance, and unit economics across cloud environments.

Visit DoiT Talk to our team

Story overview

What they say

DoiT was a true partner, not a vendor. They helped us understand the problem, refine the vision, and build something production-ready far faster than we could have on our own. Their expertise, responsiveness, and commitment made all the difference.

Dr. Anish Kapur, Founder & CEO, Promptly

DoiT's Customer Success and Forward Deployed Engineering teams work very closely with us. The regular sessions with our CSM keep us focused on the right priorities, and the FDEs provide the deep technical guidance we need to validate decisions and optimize our environment. That combination has been genuinely valuable for us.

Alexander Lundberg Santos, Platform Engineer at Extenda Retail

When we started working with DoiT, we deployed Flexsave to save time and reduce complexity. We still use it today. But what really stands out is the expert support. Having someone to collaborate with on deep cloud cost topics, someone who really understands the nuances, is incredibly valuable.

Jesper Terkelsen, CTO at Monta

DoiT's Cloud Accelerator turned our AI idea into a shipped product, saving at least three months of development and delivering reliable, explainable insights our customers trust.

Scott Desgrosseilliers, CEO and co-founder, Wicked Reports

DaySmart

Working with DoiT gave us the speed of a startup and the rigor of an enterprise R&D lab. We launched an AI feature in ninety days with zero engineering lift, unified our cloud visibility across multiple products and built a foundation to scale AI responsibly.

Tim Green, SVP of AI, DaySmart

Our AWS environment had grown rapidly, and complexity was outpacing control. DoiT helped us bring structure and clarity, aligning financial and technical decisions through a shared foundation.

Maurizio Trezzi, Director of IT, Vivaticket

DoiT gives us contextual insight into what's happening in our cloud environment. That helps us ensure we're meeting customer needs while managing our costs. It's that central pane of glass that lets engineering and finance work together, powered by the technology and backed by DoiT's people.

Matt Warner, Co-Founder and CEO at Blumira

For anyone considering DoiT: do it. The tools pay for themselves. We've reduced costs, improved visibility, and built a platform that can scale globally with control and confidence.

Matej Serbec, CTO, TradeLocker

DoiT didn't just give us a product – they gave us clarity. Cloud Diagrams has helped our teams understand what we're running, why we're running it, and where we can improve. The real-time visibility is a game changer for engineering, leadership, and everything in between.

Donnie Green, VP of Platform Engineering, Bloomerang

Sentric Music

With maybe 5-10 minutes, Ava had guided me right down into the low-level detail of the services that we were running in our compute environment, named the exact instances that were starting to chew through our money, produced a report for me that showed that this was almost a direct correlation to the cost growth that we were seeing, which meant that we were able to get on top of it pretty much immediately.

Stephen Roughley, Head of Engineering at Sentric Music

Atadex

With DoiT Cloud Intelligence™ managing our procurement and DoiT's engineers acting as an extension of my team, my costs are down, my efficiency is up, and my profitability is up

Mitch Bernet, Founder and CEO at Atadex

Skyral

A key takeaway for me working with DoiT is that the level of professionalism is extremely high. They're an obvious choice if you're looking for a partner to help implement best practices in your cloud environment and reduce cost.

Oliver Young, Senior Technical Manager at Skyral

We knew WhatsApp was the perfect channel for global remittances, but building secure, real-time conversations across languages was a massive challenge. DoiT helped us break through. They didn't just advise, they helped us architect and launch a GenAI solution that's 100x more powerful than what we had. We're now in a completely different league.

Jaime Gonzalez-Gasque, CEO, Reimagination Technologies

Your cloud bill shouldn't be a mystery

Let us show you what ships this week.

Book a demo