Activision Blizzard achieves 99.999% uptime for ERP and finance systems after migration to Oracle Database@Azure

Activision Blizzard, a global leader in gaming and entertainment, is redefining what’s possible for gamers worldwide. To keep delivering world-class content, Vice President of Finance Engineering Mahesh Tyagi and their team are reimagining internal systems to provide faster insights across the business and drive innovation. The first step: transforming core financial operations to power the next wave of gaming experiences.

That vision is coming to life with an accelerated, seven-month migration of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and finance systems to Microsoft Azure. The company is saving hundreds of thousands of dollars and boosting performance by at least 30% with Oracle Database@Azure.

Transforming finance and ERP operations with cloud migration

Activision Blizzard, the creator of iconic franchises like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, and Candy Crush, is committed to immersing its players in new and previously unimagined worlds. The cloud is the backbone of the gaming industry, and future growth begins with smarter insights. By moving finance and ERP systems to the cloud, Activision Blizzard is minimizing hardware overhead, strengthening security, and empowering teams to focus on what matters most: creating groundbreaking experiences for gamers worldwide.

Planning AI-driven innovation for finance systems required Activision Blizzard to overcome the same limitations that many enterprises face today. Existing on-premises servers made it hard to improve the company’s security posture, optimize business processes, and reimagine the customer experience. Strict internal regulations for financial reporting systems and complex, resource-intensive system maintenances added more constraints.

“ERP is critical because we have offices in 18 different countries, and employees need constant access to these applications,” says Tyagi. “Oracle Database@Azure felt like the best fit to provide the stability, reliability, and scalability for the future and to set up our finance systems for AI innovation.”

Deploying a new system architecture in just seven months

The company embarked on an ambitious migration journey, with the aim of reinventing its ERP and finance systems infrastructure in seven months. To reach this goal, the company collaborated closely with Microsoft during the iterative design and testing of a cloud-based architecture.

To support its cloud-first infrastructure and unlock agility at scale, Activision Blizzard combined multiple Azure services to build a scalable foundation for modernization. Oracle Database@Azure holds the company’s Oracle ERP and other peripheral systems, and Activision Blizzard also uses Azure SQL Database to run its robotic process automation for automating their internal processes.

The company is empowering its finance engineering teams to instantly scale and provision resources with Azure App Service, which helps ensure smooth operations during traffic spikes. Its automated backups and 99.999% uptime service-level agreements keep Activision Blizzard’s apps available and resilient to outages. The company is now positioned for AI-powered innovation for their finance systems.

Activision Blizzard launched its new Azure infrastructure a day earlier than planned. “I am proud of my team,” says Tyagi. “In seven months’ time, we migrated a complex environment to Azure with virtually zero issues, enabling our finance engineering teams to innovate and deliver new features to our customers faster than ever.”

Saving hundreds of thousands of dollars and realizing 99.999% finance system uptime

With its cloud migration, Activision Blizzard has realized at least 30% better performance on high-volume processes and is experiencing 99.999% finance system uptime. Oracle Database@Azure emerged as the best fit to deliver stability, reliability, and scalability, while establishing the right foundation to support future AI innovation. The company is saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in operational expenditures and empowering finance teams to close monthly and quarterly reports more quickly.

Activision Blizzard’s finance engineering teams improved overall security and system availability, and stakeholders across the organization have quick access to current financial information. “We don’t want the employees focused on building games to get stuck in creating requisitions—we want to empower them to get clear answers,” says Tyagi.