Stations Casinos Taps Original for Data Obfuscation and Testing

Published: October 30, 2007

by Alex Woodie

Stations Casino, a $1 billion casino franchise based in Las Vegas, has picked Original Software to provide testing and security capabilities for its large collection of i5/OS applications, Original announced last month.

Stations Casino operates more than a dozen casinos used primarily by Las Vegas residents, including Palace Station Hotel & Casino, Boulder Station Hotel & Casino, Texas Station Gambling Hall & Hotel. The company, which employs more than 14,000 people, has a partial ownership in several casinos in Henderson, Nevada, and runs an Indian casino near Sacramento, California.

Like many casino and resort operators, Stations has trusted the IBM System i to run the business applications it needs to function and make money. As of two years ago, the company was running some of the most respected i5/OS applications in its industry, such as the Agilysys Lodging Management System, the Casino Management System from Spin3, the World suite from Oracle, human resource management software from Kronos, and business intelligence software from SPSS.

Surrounding this core of business software at Stations are several high-level utilities, including high availability software from Vision Solution, change management software form Aldon, document management software from ACOM Solutions, antivirus software from Bytware, and the i5/OS power-user data utility from ProData Computer Services. These applications reside across a group of several mirrored physical System i machines.

Keeping such a varied mix of applications running smoothly through system and application upgrades requires a deft hand and careful planning. But when you consider that Stations is a shop that makes modifications to pre-packaged software and does some of its own custom development--as well as the fact that, as a development shop, it needs to comply with government security mandates--it suddenly gets more difficult to keep everything running 24/7/52, per the company's requirement.

That's where Original Software of the UK steps in. Stations picked several Original products to help smooth out the rough spots on new application releases while keeping test data under lock and key. With the Original tools scanning new 5250 development, as well as analyzing its Web and Windows interfaces for errors, the casino hopes to reduce its risk and exposure to data compromise or running afoul of compliance mandates, improving the quality of its in-house development, and decreasing the amount of time spent testing before hitting the "go live" button.

Stations added four Original titles to its application library. This list includes TestBench Advanced, which it will use to test all server-side and database transactions; TestDrive Gold, a GUI- and Web-testing solution; TestDrive-Assist, which supplies active support for manual testing; and Extractor, which extracts and manages test data while ensuring its security.

In particular, Stations looked to Original to protect the security of its customers' information and their identities, Original says. The software developer helps Stations by obfuscating players' data during software tests, ensuring that it can't be purposely or inadvertently compromised.

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