Inside the Singapore Offices of Softlayer, the Server Power Behind ‘Draw Something’

The Draw Something phenomenon was absolutely overwhelming when it first went viral; everyone was talking about it and getting hooked on the game. Judging from the information obtained from AppData.com for the month of March, the increase in Monthly Active Users (MAU) for Draw Something was explosive, sextupled from less than 5 million to 30 million MAU.

The infrastructure supporting the sudden and rapid increase in the number of users has to be really robust. It’s supported by Softlayer; and apparently OMGPOP, the makers of Draw Something, is one of its top clients.

Softlayer just opened its APAC office in Singapore last October, and is currently located at the Digital Realty Building within the Singapore International Business Park in Jurong. The building has extremely tight security control, only allowing one to pass through to get to the lift lobby (pictured right). This is particularly because the entire building is built to support infrastructure to house servers, and some cater to financial institutions, so they require an environment which is safe and secure.

The reason they started the Singapore office was that they needed to support existing customers within the Asia region and acquire more users. Michael Ong, the general manager of Softlayer APAC, also told us that their current focus isn’t banks, but is instead internet-centric. They’re looking to acquire new businesses in social media, gaming, hosting companies, and mobile applications. I guess it also comes as good news to entrepreneurs needing Softlayer services within the region – afterall with support closer to home, you get faster and better access to their services.

It makes geographically strategic sense for them to be based here in Singapore, given the skill sets that we have here in Singapore. Undoubtedly the rental and labour costs are on the steep side, but the presence of necessary support and resources, such as grants and better tax rates for doing business here in Singapore, can offset the costs incurred.

At present, they have 15 engineers within the team working around the clock, and are looking to expand the entire team to 50 in the next one and a half years.

I was told they have a really pretty office, but I wasn’t allowed to take photographs. But here’s a shot of the front desk area at the Softlayer Singapore office: