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10 / Com2us Platform · Multi-cloud Multi-cloud operations · Cloud security · IaC automation

Summoners War: Sky Arena multi-cloud and firewall redesign.

A massive game platform across GCP and Tencent Cloud, with 600 servers and 70 databases, a full firewall policy redesign, and patching with no maintenance window.

PERIOD
Feb 2023 – Feb 2026
MY ROLE
Cloud Engineer · Main engineer
TOOLS & CONTEXT
GCP · Tencent Cloud · Terraform · Terragrunt · Cloud Armor — 600 servers · 70 databases · Massive
GCPTencent Cloud600 servers · 70 databases (across both clouds)WebGameDBAdmin
What remains is regrouped by server role, which makes rules easier to review and change.
01 / CONTEXT

Problem

This was the company's largest project, with Tencent added for service in China. Firewall policies across the two clouds had grown duplicated and complex, and code spread across many regions had become hard to manage with Terraform alone.

02 / DECISIONS

Approach

A full analysis of cross-cloud firewall policies removed duplicate and unneeded rules and regrouped the rest by role: web, game, database, and admin. Terraform moved to a Terragrunt structure to remove code duplication. Most servers sat behind load balancers, so patches rolled through by taking servers out and back one at a time.

03 / ENGINEERING

Implementation

  • GCP
  • Tencent Cloud
  • Terraform
  • Terragrunt
  • Cloud Armor

Scale · 600 servers · 70 databases · Massive

FLOW / 05
GCPTencent Cloud600 servers · 70 databases (across both clouds)

Summoners War: Sky Arena ran 600 servers and 70 databases across GCP and Tencent.

01 / 05
Read every step
  1. Summoners War: Sky Arena ran 600 servers and 70 databases across GCP and Tencent.
  2. Years of operation had tangled the firewall rules between the two clouds.
  3. A full review marks duplicate rules yellow and unused rules gray.
  4. Unneeded rules and structures are removed.
  5. What remains is regrouped by server role, which makes rules easier to review and change.
Load balancerPatchingPatchingNo maintenance window: servers change one at a time
The whole pool is patched without stopping the service.
04 / VERIFICATION

Result

Simpler firewall policies were easier to review and change, with a smaller exposed surface. Moving to Terragrunt cut deployment time by 40%, and GCP Cloud Armor provided DDoS protection.

600
Servers
70
Databases
-40%
Deployment time after moving to Terragrunt

MEASUREMENT Lower is better

Before 100
After 60
Condition
Deployment time after moving to Terragrunt
Scope
Relative value, before the change = 100
05 / REFLECTION

What I learned

The big lesson was that a firewall policy that only ever gains rules soon becomes unreadable. Regrouping long-accumulated rules by role, web, game, DB, and management, made it obvious where to look for any change and shrank the exposed surface along with it. Code hit the same problem at scale, so Terraform that had grown across many regions had to move to a Terragrunt structure to strip out the duplication. Running without maintenance windows came less from any special technique than from a structure where servers sit behind load balancers and can be taken out and put back one at a time. And because a policy cleaned up by one full analysis piles up again over time, I learned that cleanup has to be a recurring check, not a one-time job.

OUTCOME

600 / 70 — Servers / databases, GCP and Tencent multi-cloud

Related field notes

NEXT / C&Thoth · Azure MSP MIR4 Global: massive Azure infrastructure and automated DDoS blocking

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