Passage empowers brands and creators to host engaging, immersive virtual events that captivate audiences and foster real connection.
Passage has been leveraging cloud GPUs for almost 4 years to create industry-leading immersive experiences accessible instantly from any browser on any device. While they have leveraged compute from multiple major providers, tapping into the Akash GPU marketplace this year has unlocked new potential for streamed experiences. The Passage team has seen price reductions averaging 50%, and up to 70%, compared to traditional GPU providers.
Creating Immersive Virtual Worlds on Passage
The Passage platform makes these immersive, virtual experiences accessible to anyone. Teams, creators, and educators can gather in a Passage event without downloads, apps, or load times. The platform is integrated with Unreal Engine 5, allowing anyone to create and interact with the world’s most powerful gaming engine without any hardware requirements. In addition to the expansive creative tools available via the UE5 integration, Passage offers out-of-the-box tools for virtual collaboration and events.
The Challenge: Cost of No “Compromises”
Passage has made zero compromises when it comes to accessibility or immersion. The graphics are the best possible across any platform, and anyone can join instantly from any browser on any device. The one compromise required for this unique experience is cost: Passage has removed the compute barrier from the end-user, which means the platform bears the cost.
These costs limit the applications they can offer and the verticals they can address. GPU compute cost is a key consideration for many opportunities with Passage.
“Our fundamental thesis with Passage is that GPU compute will soon be a commodity, just like video has become on the web,” says Lex Avellino, co-founder of Passage. “Video used to be prohibitive as a format on the web, and now it’s ubiquitous.”
The Solution: The Akash Supercloud
Seeking alternatives to traditional cloud providers, Passage discovered the Akash Supercloud and its open-source compute marketplace. The model was compelling: providers compete to offer GPU resources in an open marketplace, which creates price competition that ultimately drives down costs. Initial tests showed they could maintain, or in some cases improve, performance while significantly reducing the total cost of compute.
“Akash gave us exactly what we needed: high-performance GPUs at 50% lower cost,” says Arel Avellino, co-founder of Passage. “The savings and flexibility have significantly opened doors for us to expand. Even if we were to reserve GPUs on AWS for an entire year, we would not see the same cost savings as Akash provides. We’re now able to offer better value to our users while pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in digital experiences and events.”
Implementation and Results
Passage began by migrating a portion of their GPU workloads to Akash. The initial results exceeded expectations — render speeds matched or exceeded their previous cloud provider while costs dropped dramatically. After validating performance across diverse scenarios and world types, they committed to greatly expanding their usage of the Akash Supercloud.
The migration process proved straightforward. Using Akash’s deployment tools, Passage’s engineering team transferred their existing workloads and implemented automated scaling to handle demand fluctuations. Within weeks, they had achieved a fully operational virtual world rendered entirely on GPUs accessed through Akash, delivering improved performance at a fraction of the cost.
“Passage proves what’s possible with decentralized cloud infrastructure. They were able to reduce their cloud spend by up to 70%, with an average cost savings of 50%, while running virtual worlds on the highest-demand NVIDIA GPUs. This is exactly why Akash was built,” says Greg Osuri, Founder of Akash.
Looking Forward
The dramatic reduction in cloud costs has transformed Passage’s growth trajectory. With infrastructure spending no longer a limiting factor, the company can invest more heavily in platform development and new features for creators.
“Akash sets us up perfectly for our next phase of growth,” says Passage CEO Arel Avellino. “Instead of managing infrastructure costs, we can focus on building the tools our creators need. As we prepare for our closed beta release, we believe the efficiency of Akash’s marketplace gives us a competitive edge to take over the digital events space.”
Learn more about Passage
To experience Passage, you can hop into their Discord for weekly community calls hosted in the platform, or sign up for early access at passage.io/elite-alpha-signup.
