1. Windows Azure
Customer Solution Case Study
Advertising Company Adopts Cloud
Computing, Gets 400 Percent Improvement
Overview
Country or Region: Israel
Industry: Media and entertainment
Customer Profile
Based in Israel and with offices in Europe
and the United States, TicTacTi offers
technology for monetizing games and
videos by providing interactive solutions
for in-game and in-video advertising.
Business Situation
To scale to meet customer demand for
its easy-to-apply advertising solutions for
games and videos, TicTacTi needed to
implement its technology on a reliable
and full-service cloud computing
platform.
Solution
The company implemented its
technology on the Windows Azure
platform, taking advantage of its
scalability, redundancy, flexibility, and
compatibility with the TicTacTi
development environment.
Benefits
 Shortened time-to-market
 Improved product performance
 Reduced IT workload
 Eliminated infrastructure investments
“With Windows Azure, we have avoided costs in
infrastructures andoperations. Thanks to the flexibility
of cloud computing, our customers can make use of
the service on any scale.”
Nir Hagshury, Chief Technical Officer, TicTacTi
TicTacTi offers interactive advertising solutions for games and
videos. Its T3 Overlay Ad Insertion application, built using
Microsoft technology, seamlessly inserts advertisements by
placing them above a video source or stream. To meet customer
demand for increased performance and scalability, TicTacTi
needed to implement its technology on a cloud computing
platform that included hardware infrastructure, storage
infrastructure, a development environment, and an application
environment. By choosing the Windows Azure platform, TicTacTi
was able to make available its entire range of services on
demand, with full system management and built-in redundancy.
Also, its developers could work with familiar Microsoft
technologies. The company now benefits from faster time-to-
market, improved product performance, reduced IT workload,
and enormous cost savings.

2. Situation
Founded in 2007, TicTacTi is an Israel-based
software technology company with
agencies in Europe and the United States
that provides advertising solutions for
information-rich content including games
and videos. Its out-of-the-box solutions are
simple to apply and adapt easily to
different advertising campaigns.For
example, it takes just a few hours to
prepare a game to insert advertising
elements, such as introductory promos,
advertising between game stages, and
advertising at the end of a game. TicTacTi
solutions can be applied without editing
code or employing software development
kits, and the technology can be easily
applied to games, toolbars, instant
messaging clients, and websites.
The primary TicTacTi offering is the T3
Overlay Ad Insertion, a proprietary
application that seamlessly inserts products
and advertisements into a video or game
by placing them above a video source or
stream. (See Figure 1.) The advertising
product then becomes part of the video.
Advertisers can take advantage of creative
brand placements in such a way that the
product is integrated into the video,
inserted in a nonintrusive way. Users can
click an advertisement to get more
information, related promotional materials,
a shopping cart, or directions. The
advertising solution also supportsbanner
ads. The TicTacTi technology can be
applied to a wide range of broadcasting
formats including Windows Media Player,
the Adobe Flash Player, the Microsoft
Silverlight browser plug-in,and others.
TicTacTi developed its T3 Overlay Ad
Insertion application by using the Microsoft
.NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2, which
runs on the Windows operating system.
The company also uses Internet
Information Services (IIS), web server
software fromMicrosoft that runs on
Windows Server 2008 R2 and handles
everything from media streaming to web
application hosting.
The T3 Overlay Ad Insertion technology
also uses Microsoft SQL Server database
software components: SQL Server
Integration Services performs data
migration, SQL Server Analysis Services
serves as a database management system,
and SQL Server Reporting Services
generates reports through a web interface.
With its existing infrastructure, TicTacTi
didn’t have the computing power to meet
the demand of the number of users playing
games on its network. To make the most of
its solution,TicTacTi needed a cloud
platformthat included hardware
infrastructure,storage infrastructure,a
development environment, and an
application environment.
“Our application is based on a Microsoft
environment from end to end,” says Nir
Hagshury, Chief Technical Officer at
TicTacTi. “We required a cloud computing
solution with maximumelasticity that
would be capable of providing an entire
environment as a service according to
demand. We needed to avoid the huge
investments in hardware, software, and
maintenance necessary to meet the
scalability required by the T3 Overlay Ad
Insertion application, and we needed
maximum redundancy."
Solution
To find a solution, TicTacTi reviewed several
cloud solutions,including The Rackspace
Cloud, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
(Amazon EC2), and Gogrid. “None of these
solutions met our database needs,
including redundancy,” says Hagshury.
“The Windows Azure
platform simply works—
on any scale and at any
load level—completely
automatically."
Nir Hagshury, Chief Technical Officer,
TicTacTi

3. To expand the potential of TicTacTi
technology, in December 2009 the
company chose the Windows Azure
platformas its cloud computing solution.
“Windows Azure is the only platformthat
provides a database solution with built-in
redundancy and scalability, complete and
automatic redundancy of application
servers, and full-service system
management from the service provider,”
says Hagshury.
Windows Azure is the development, service
hosting, and service management
environment for the Windows Azure
platform. It provides developers with on-
demand compute and storage to host,
scale, and manage web applications on the
Internet through Microsoft data centers.
The company chose the Windows Azure
platformin part because it needed to have
servers in both the United States and
Europe. Plus, the platformgives TicTacTi
developers the capability to develop in the
familiar .NET Framework environment, and
provides full support for SQL Server
technologies. The company also can use
Windows Azure capabilities to set up virtual
private networks (VPNs) from servers in
customers’ locations. “The Windows Azure
platformis so flexible that we can deploy
additional application servers on short
notice,” says Hagshury. “Alternatively, we
can easily take servers down.”
The company implemented a solution that
includes Microsoft SQL Azure, a cloud-
based relational database service built on
SQL Server technologies. As needed, the
company will duplicate the database, which
retains, manages, and retrieves data in the
cloud using database management tools
familiar to the organization.TicTacTi
completed its implementation in June 2010.
The company hosts its website on the
Windows Azure platform, and it uses the
Hyper-V virtualization capabilities built into
the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating
system to host its T3 Overlay Ad Insertion
application. For trackingstatistical content,
TicTacTi employs Windows Azure Storage,
which can grow as required to meet
customer demand. The company is also
taking advantage of the Windows Azure
Management Tool to manage its hosted
services and storage accounts.
With the Windows Azure platform, TicTacTi
has created an end-to-end solution for
backup services, storage, database
management, and system management. “If
we had to deliver the solution through our
own data centers, we would be working
from morning till night testing load levels
and allocating additional servers and
computing resources,” says Hagshury. “By
contrast, the Windows Azure platform
simply works—on any scale and at any load
level—completely automatically."
Figure 1 – T3 Overlay Ad
Insertion technology lets
advertisers place ads in
creative ways above video
streams.

4. By using the Windows Azure platform,
TicTacTi has been able to implement a
complete application environment that is
scalable, redundant, and makes available its
entire range of services. The platform
provides virtually unlimited capacity to
meet very high levels of demand. With the
Windows Azure platform, the company is
able to provide its customers with full
system management services and a
comprehensive service level agreement.
Benefits
By using the Windows Azure platform,
TicTacTi is able to focus on delivering value
to its customers, achieving its business
objectives, and providing a high standard
of service. It has significantly shortened the
time-to-market for its advertising
technology and seeded the potential to
serve many more customers.
With its technology hosted on the
Windows Azure platform, TicTacTi
technology is performing faster, which
helps the company grow. TicTacTi also has
been able to reduce the workload of its IT
staff and eliminate investments in
computing power.
“With Windows Azure, we have avoided
costs in infrastructuresand operations,”
says Hagshury. “Thanks to the flexibility of
cloud computing, our customers can make
use of the service on a very increased
scale.”
Shortened Time-to-Market
TicTacTi designed, developed,
implemented, tested and deployed it
solution on the Windows Azure platformin
less than five weeks, and delivered a
superior solution that offered a level of
performance and service that can satisfy its
customer base. “TicTacTi is using all
Windows Azure technologies, including
web services, Microsoft SQL Server
functionality, multiple data locations,
storage, and so on,” says Hagshury. "The
ability to receive these resources as a
service made it possible for us to
considerably speed up the process of
reaching customers. Plus, we avoided
spending [U.S.]$50,000 on hardware and a
hosting facility.”
Improved Product Performance
The company conducted tests and found
that transferring its technology to the
Windows Azure platformreduces the
reaction time of the T3 Overlay Ad Insertion
application from400 milliseconds to less
than 100 milliseconds, a 400 percent
performance improvement.
TicTacTi is taking advantage of the elasticity
of Windows Azure platform—and its ability
to provide functionality to a multitude of
customers. "Any customer joining our
service creates hundreds and thousands of
additional customers,” says Hagshury.
“With Windows Azure, we can significantly
increase the growth rate of the company.”
Reduced IT Workload
By using the Windows Azure platform,
TicTacTi has significantly reduced the
workload of the IT team and avoided the
costs of employing experts in the fields of
data management, backup, storage, and
server maintenance. The company reports
that managing and hosting the solution
without Windows Azure would have
required hiring a 50 percent IT position.
"When you use a solution like Windows
Azure, there is no need to have an in-depth
understanding of infrastructures,” says
Hagshury. “Windows Azure is like a black
box or an electrical socket. You simply plug
in and use the relevant resources.”
Eliminated Infrastructure Investments
TicTacTi has reduced costs by deploying its
solution on the Windows Azure platform,
which eliminates the need to acquire
“When you use a
solution like Windows
Azure, there is no need
to have an in-depth
understandingof
infrastructures.Windows
Azure is like a black box
or an electrical socket.
You simply plug in and
use the relevant
resources.”
Nir Hagshury, Chief Technical Officer,
TicTacTi

5. hardware infrastructures, storage,software,
and personnel. The company realizes
additional savings because it pays only for
the infrastructure resources it uses. Because
of its pay-per-use policy, TicTacTi is saving
80 percent in operational costs over a
three-year period.
"For our company, which has developed its
solution based on Microsoft technology,
the Windows Azure platformis the most
natural, most economical, and most
efficient solution available,” says Hagshury.
“With it, we’re avoiding enormous
investments in infrastructure and global
deployment.”
Windows Azure Platform
The Windows Azure platformprovides an
excellent foundation for expanding online
product and service offerings.The main
components include:
 Windows Azure. Windows Azure is the
development, service hosting, and
service management environment for the
Windows Azure platform. Windows
Azure provides developers with on-
demand compute and storage to host,
scale, and manage web applications on
the Internet through Microsoft data
centers.
 Microsoft SQL Azure. Microsoft SQL
Azure offers the first cloud-based
relational and self-managed database
service built on Microsoft SQL Server
2008 technologies.
 Windows Azure platform AppFabric.
With Windows Azure platform
AppFabric, developers can build and
manage applications more easily both
on-premises and in the cloud.
− AppFabric Service Bus connects
services and applications across
network boundaries to help
developers build distributed
applications.
− AppFabric Access Control provides
federated, claims-based access control
for REST web services.
 Microsoft "Dallas." Developers and
information workers can use the new
service code-named Dallas to easily
discover, purchase, and manage
premium data subscriptions in the
Windows Azure platform.
To learn more about the Windows Azure
platform, visit:
www.windowsazure.com
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at (800) 426-
9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft
Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-
2495. Customers in the United States and
Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing
can reach Microsoft text telephone
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234.
Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access
information using the World Wide Web,
go to:
www.microsoft.com
For more information about TicTacTi
products and services, call (972) (0)77 -
4404394 or visit the website at:
www.tictacti.com
Additional Resources:
Training: Channel9 Windows Azure
Training Course
Download: Windows Azure Training Kit
Download: Windows Azure SDK
White paper: Security Best Practices for
Developing on the Windows Azure
Platform
This case study is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published August 2010
Software and Services
 Windows Azure Platform
− Windows Azure
− Microsoft SQL Azure
 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
− Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise
− Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
 Technologies
− Internet Information Services 7.5
− Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0