Client:

Hospitality & Gaming Company

 

Industry Background:

The U.S. gaming industry is going beyond the brick-and-mortar casino into online gaming. A growing number of states allow online gaming, including sports betting, poker and casino games. Online gaming gives established casino and entertainment brands an opportunity to expand into new markets, gain a new customer base and provide existing customers with an omnichannel experience. However, gaming companies that lack a robust IT infrastructure can risk alienating customers if their online gaming systems cannot keep up with demand.

 

Project Summary:

One of the top hospitality and gaming companies in the world is moving rapidly into online gaming. The company acquired a U.K.-based provider of online sports betting, and has obtained licenses for online gaming in the states that offer them. The company must have a physical presence in each state, and utilizes mini data centers to meet that criteria and maximize online gaming performance for local customers.

 

Some of the IT infrastructure the company acquired was already running at 75 percent capacity under average load, leaving little room to handle peak volumes. The company partnered with a value-added reseller (VAR) to obtain more memory for its servers, and additional servers to add to the clusters. The VAR asked SirviS to handle the installation.

 

Because online gaming is a 24x7 operation, the memory upgrades and implementations had to be completed with no downtime. SirviS has the technical expertise, vendor certifications, project management framework and logistical capabilities to meet the customer’s stringent requirements.

 

Project Specifics:

Integrating new equipment into server clusters without bringing the systems down is a very challenging proposition. The SirviS team performed as much configuration and testing as possible prior to going onsite to make the implementation process as efficient as possible. Nevertheless, adding just one server could take eight to 12 hours of effort, with painstaking configuration to ensure that there were no incompatibilities that might cause an outage.

 

Installing additional memory in existing servers was in some ways more difficult. SirviS technicians had to remove each server from the cluster, open the box and install the DIMMs — all within minutes. To minimize the risk of downtime, SirviS tested the DIMMs in its Global Integration Center prior to going onsite and handled the replacement of any DIMMs that were defective. SirviS doubled the memory in each server, effectively reducing the capacity threshold to 40 percent or less.

 

SirviS is also helping the customer expand its operations into “greenfield” data centers. The SirviS team has assisted with a new network architecture and the buildout of the new facilities.

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Results:

SirviS had the ability to add memory to existing servers and install new servers with no disruption to its around-the-clock online gaming business. SirviS has completed work at eight sites, and continues to handle upgrades across the customer’s environment. As the customer expands geographically, SirviS is assisting with the design, architecture and implementation of greenfield data center sites.