Lakeview Takes Casino Customer from Vision

Published: March 13, 2007

by Alex Woodie

PlayLV Gaming Operations of Las Vegas has installed a new high availability system from Lakeview Technology to ensure that its critical hotel and gambling operations stay online. The company, which operates two Vegas casinos, made the switch from ORION Standard Edition (SE), the former OS Solutions high availability product that Vision Solutions is sunsetting as part of its reorganization following the merger with iTera.

Like many casinos around the country, PlayLV relies on IBM iSeries servers to run software applications that are critical to its operations, including Agilysys Lodging Management System, Infor's Infinium financials, and Bally Technologies' Casino Management System. These systems are used to support lodging and gambling operations at two PlayLV properties, including the Plaza Casino and Hotel and the Vegas Club Hotel and Casino.

The company previously relied on Vision's entry-level high availability solution, called ORION SE--which Vision obtained in its acquisition of OS Solutions in 2005--to replicate data and objects between a pair of iSeries servers. However, PlayLV needed a new high availability product because Vision has started moving ORION SE customers off that product and will end support for it soon, according to company officials. Vision is encouraging ORION SE customers to adopt its flagship offering, iTera HA, formerly Echo2. A third Vision product, the full ORION product that was offered before the iTera merger, will continue to be supported indefinitely, company officials say.

Instead of going with iTera HA, PlayLV decided to take advantage of Lakeview's generous "Safe Passage" program, which offers discounts on licensing for customers leaving competitive solutions for its own. So PlayLV replaced ORION SE in favor of MIMIX ha Lite, Lakeview's entry-level high availability offering.

In addition to moving to a supported product, PlayLV also benefits from increased uptime, Lakeview reports. Prior to the move, all maintenance and backup work required scheduled system downtime. With MIMIX ha Lite replicating data between PlayLV's System i Model 520 and iSeries Model 810 servers, nightly downtime has been eliminated, and daily maintenance can now be performed without interrupting users.

Leslie Ruthe, PlayLV's vice president of IT, says the company is happy with how things turned out. "Lakeview's Safe Passage program gave us a no-risk way to improve our operations and eliminate downtime," Ruthe says. "I recommend MIMIX for any gaming and leisure organization."

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