How PENN Entertainment eliminated casino floor outages

PENN Entertainment operates entertainment properties across the United States and Canada, including casinos, racetracks, and hotels. For millions of guests, reliable technology is the invisible foundation that makes gaming entertainment experiences possible.

PENN Entertainment operates 43 properties across the United States and Canada, including casinos, racetracks, and hotels. For millions of guests, reliable technology is the invisible foundation that makes gaming entertainment experiences possible.

Craig Turner, Infrastructure Architect at PENN Entertainment, joined five years ago to find a complex web of legacy systems inherited through mergers and acquisitions. The stakes couldn't be higher in an industry where game access directly translates to lost revenue. "With most gaming organizations today, some of the biggest challenges are protecting player data and reliability," explains Turner. "If our systems are down, you can't play a slot machine...That's millions of dollars that we're losing."

PENN's small IT team supported a massive environment spanning 30,000 virtual machines, and 100,000 database tables across their many properties. Combined with strict regulatory compliance and 24/7 operational demands, this created issues. Whenever there was an update, systems could not risk being out of commission. "Having disruptive upgrades or unscheduled outages means uncomfortable conversations with leadership...We were having floor outages. That's not sustainable."

PENN Entertainment standardized on the Everpure platform to simplify their complex infrastructure while meeting gaming industry demands. PENN now has achieved marked reduction in floor outages. "Standardizing on the Everpure FlashArray platform, the reliability has been phenomenal," notes Turner. "That piece alone has allowed our regional and property IT to really focus on revenue-generating, business-impact IT services."

In addition to revenue impact, there is the confidence factor to support decision making for the team. "Everpure stood out for its intuitive operating system, reliability, and non-disruptive upgrades," says Turner. "You can't just throw legacy systems out because of regulations, gaming control boards. So Pure has been a tremendous help."

They deployed FlashArray to support casino, gaming, and hotel workloads, and use Pure1 for centralized visibility and management across their infrastructure. Evergreen subscription services ensure continuous hardware lifecycle management with predictable costs and clear and transparent terms. "We went to Pure and it's been one of the highest return on investments from a lifecycle standpoint, a security standpoint or reliability standpoint."

The intuitive interface in Everpure eliminates top-heavy management by enabling junior team members to confidently manage critical infrastructure. Now, the team at PENN Entertainment can focus on what they do best, providing memorable experiences. “We want that real-time data so when you step on property, we know it’s your birthday or anniversary. Pure helps us do that.”