Customer Profile: Pechanga Resort and Casino - EMC

PECHANGA RESORT And CASINO EMC Isilon consolidates surveillance storage for high reliability and quick ROI OVERVIEW Located in Temecula, on the Pechanga Reservation, Pechanga Resort and Casino is California’s largest casino, with 3,000 employees, 3,400 slot machines, and 200,000 square feet of gaming space. Opened in 2002 by the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, the facility also incorporates a hotel with more than 500 rooms, a variety of restaurants, spa facilities, entertainment, an adjacent RV resort, convention space, and a stunning 18-hole golf course. Pechanga Technology Solutions Group (PTSG) supports Pechanga Resort and Casino’s vital surveillance processes. PTSG is a small business that is owned by the

ESSENTIALS Industry Gaming and Entertainment Company Size 3,000 employees Business Challenges •

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Un-unified DVR surveillance system could not support Big Data imaging needs Proprietary systems were not scalable; 40 racks of DVR equipment were expensive to operate and inefficient to manage Proprietary systems could not adequately support required retention periods for high definition, 30-frame-per-second imaging input Gaming revenues were at risk if un-unified storage failed. Lack of backup processes did not satisfactorily meet WORM needs

Solutions

Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. The company provides innovative network and telecommunication solutions, specializing in turn key systems design and integration projects. PTSG solutions focus on security, reliability, redundancy, and scalability.

BUSINESS CHALLENGES Pechanga Resort and Casino is open on a 24/7/365 basis, and is required to have constant video surveillance of all gaming areas, including cash cages and count rooms. If surveillance fails, Pechanga Resort and Casino must stop gaming operations, resulting in the loss of significant revenues. In order to ensure complete surveillance transparency, all surveillance operations are managed by a separate organization that reports to the Gaming Commission. Surveillance activities at the resort are supported by multiple cameras located throughout the resort and casino. Surveillance cameras record at 30 frames per second (compared to films, which are recorded at 24 frames per second), because if an incident occurs, the surveillance footage can be used as evidence in court. High-definition video imaging results in the need for large storage capacities. “Surveillance operations are designed to protect both the customers and the casino, promoting professional and fair gaming,” explains Michael Grimsley, director of IT systems for Pechanga Technology Solutions Group (PTSG). “Furthermore, in the event of an incident, specific video associated with the incident must be retained for specific amounts of time, sometimes indefinitely.” However, the old proprietary surveillance systems faced many challenges. Surveillance operations were supported by approximately 400 individual digital video recording (DVR) devices stored in 40 racks in the data center. High power and cooling requirements resulted in unacceptable operating costs.

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50 x EMC® Isilon® X200 Nodes

Each DVR could only support a small number of cameras. This un-unified system

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OneFS, SmartLock, SmartQuotas, SmartConnect, InsightIQ

was also inefficient to manage, could not support the ever-growing volumes of digital media data, and lacked the flexibility and agility necessary to support the Pechanga Resort and Casino business. DVR technology could also be unreliable, resulting in occasional surveillance failures.

Customer Profile

“The old system faced many challenges,” adds Grimsley. “If they wanted to add Results •

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Quick scale-out architecture future-proofs surveillance technology by meeting increased data storage requirements Zero downtime and high availability protects 24/7/365 operations and revenues by meeting gaming surveillance laws

cameras, they would also have to purchase all the associated accessory equipment including new DVRs, and install them, which was time-consuming and lacked the flexibility and agility they needed.” “In redesigning the system, we wanted to give surveillance additional capabilities for their video requirements, which were virtually impossible with the old system. What we required was new storage technology that would consolidate the surveillance environment, that was easy to use, highly reliable, and that could scale inexpensively and quickly with proven scale-out technologies.”

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Easily manages over 1.5 PB of data

Having defined the objectives and requirements with Anthony Borges, the director of

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ROI in less than 9 months

of solutions available from Hitachi, Compellent, and IBM, among others.

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Highly agile and flexible, enabling quick reaction times to new surveillance needs

of data, the EMC Isilon solution provided us with the capabilities, scalability, and ease

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Minimizes OPEX by consolidating surveillance storage into a single centralized solution

solution

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Tools simplify management, enabling even non-IT staff to administer solutions

Pechanga Resort and Casino replaced its aging DVR systems by deploying 50 Isilon

High storage capacity allows increased retention periods to meet all WORM requirements

and InsightIQ™. VMware has been deployed to create virtual machines, increasing

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Automated backup processes ensure protection of critical incident imaging

surveillance, from the Pechanga Gaming Commission, the team considered a number “Once we did the calculations and realized that we wanted to store around 1.5 PBs of use that we required.”

x200 Platform nodes. Easy management is facilitated by the Isilon OneFS® operating system, as well as integrated EMC Isilon SmartLock®, SmartQuotas™, SmartConnect™, agility and flexibility. In addition, PTSG implemented a backup solution with EMC Data Domain.

QUICK SCALE-OUT, EASY TO MANAGE Isilon is now storing 1.5 PBs of critical video imaging to meet the resort’s surveillance requirements. Since deploying Isilon products, and due to increases in storage needs, Grimsley and his team have already surpassed their original Isilon storage specifications. As a result of Isilon’s scale-out architecture, the resort has been able to easily meet storage capacities. “Scaling out is very easy,” says Grimsley. “We recently purchased three additional Isilon storage nodes for growth. Once we install the nodes in the rack, and connect them to the Isilon cluster, we’ll have the additional nodes up and going in 60 seconds. “Isilon has provided Pechanga Resort and Casino with an enterprise solution to meet an enterprise problem.”

“Savings in OPEX, increased efficiency, highly scalable performance that reduces CAPEX, ease of use—multiple factors have resulted in a payback of less than nine months.” Michael Grimsley, Director of IT Systems, Pechanga Technology Solutions Group (PTSG)

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Quick scalability has also enabled the resort to increase retention periods. “One of the objectives was to surpass the minimum retention requirement,” says Grimsley. “By keeping video longer, we’re able to better meet resort requirements in the event of an incident.” Grimsley also notes that Isilon is easy to use, even by non-IT staff. “Most surveillance staff do not have an IT background. Yet they learned how to manage Isilon very quickly. They tell me it’s like driving a Cadillac with a Ferrari engine; it’s quick and responsive.” Responsiveness is due to Isilon’s high-IOPS performance. “Every node has 2x 10 GB uplinks to the network. We have plenty of bandwidth to provide the horsepower required.”

INCREASED AGILITY Agility and ease of management are also maximized with a variety of integrated Isilon software solutions. “InsightIQ provides complete analytical and management capabilities in a single window. If someone wants information regarding our Isilon solution, I can respond to them instantly,” Grimsley states. Grimsley notes how other Isilon solutions benefit the business: Isilon SmartLock enables surveillance staff to set policies on specific video data to prevent accidental deletion, allowing the organization to meet “write once, read many” (WORM) compliance. SmartQuotas allows staff to easily allocate additional storage to virtual machines if required. SmartConnect ensures high levels of data availability, 24/7/365. “Using this tool, we have configured our Isilon storage so that we can lose multiple nodes within the storage, yet still maintain the requirements needed by surveillance for uninterrupted availability with no downtime,” says Grimsley. “This ensures regulatory compliance and mitigates the potential risk to our revenues.”

SUMMARY AND FUTURE PLANS Installed less than nine months ago, Pechanga Resort and Casino’s Isilon scale-out network-attached storage (NAS) solution has already paid for itself. “We’ve been able to consolidate storage from 400 machines on 40 racks to only four racks of infrastructure,” Grimsley says. “Savings in OPEX, increased efficiency, highly scalable performance that reduces CAPEX, ease of use—multiple factors have resulted in a payback of less than nine months.” Isilon has provided the resort with transformational storage technologies that meet the business’s surveillance needs and objectives, while also helping to ensure zero downtime. “Isilon is a highly reliable solution that has transformed our surveillance

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capabilities and the way we manage it,” Grimsley continues. “We engineered the

To learn more about how EMC Isilon products, services, and solutions can help solve your business and IT challenges, contact your local representative or authorized reseller—or visit us at www.EMC.com/Isilon.

capabilities and uninterrupted availability help us to protect our vital surveillance

solution to ensure that it will fully meet our future needs. The Isilon scale-out activities and therefore our business.”

EMC2, EMC, the EMC logo, Isilon, OneFS, InsightIQ, SmartConnect, SmartLock, and SmartQuotas are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc., in the United States and other jurisdictions. © Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA. 12/12 Customer Profile H11272 EMC believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

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