Betfair

Gaming Company Increases System Performance with Operating System and Server Upgrade

Based in the United Kingdom, Betfair is the world’s biggest online betting community. To address issues with an aging operating system, such as system performance lags that negatively impacted employee productivity, the company decided to migrate to the Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2 operating systems. Still early in its deployment, Betfair has increased system performance, improved user experience, and streamlined IT management.

 

Business Needs

Betfair pioneered the first successful online betting exchange in 2000, and it offers a portfolio of online gambling products and services. The company is the world’s leading betting exchange, and its betting platforms include a bookmaking operation in Malta.

The online gaming company processes more than 6 million transactions a day on its Web site. Each of the more than 1,700 employees at Betfair, from IT personnel to customer service representatives, is focused on doing their part to support the high-traffic site.

Betfair has 2,000 client computers running primarily the Windows® XP operating system—60 percent are portable computers and 40 percent are desktops. Its Microsoft server environment is composed of 400 servers running the Windows Server® 2003 and Windows Server 2008 operating systems.

In an effort to provide an optimized IT infrastructure to continue to support its lean operations, Betfair wanted to upgrade its client and server operating systems. After installing modern applications on its computers, including Microsoft® Office Professional Plus 2007, the betting company experienced performance lags with Windows XP. “It is critical that all our employees be as productive as possible to support our Web site—it’s our bread and butter. Any productivity loss as a result of system performance is unacceptable,” says Ian Burgess, Head of Microsoft and Data Center Platforms at Betfair.

The online gaming company was also in the process of refreshing much of its hardware estate, some of which was four years old. “It doesn’t make sense to install an operating system that is five years old on new hardware when there are alternatives,” explains Burgess. “We were overdue for an upgrade.”

Solution

To implement a reliable infrastructure, Betfair decided to migrate to the Windows 7 Enterprise operating system and Windows Server 2008 R2, which has many features designed to work with Windows 7.

Even with hardware that is two years old …, we’re seeing a 20 percent increase in system performance for common workflow tasks, and that helps our employees stay productive. Ian Burgess Head of Microsoft and Data Center Platforms, Betfair

In April 2009, the online gaming company started with a pilot and upgraded 150 computers to Windows 7. By using a carefully selected group of employees from different divisions across the company, Betfair was able to identify application compatibility issues. The company plans to use Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, to deliver a virtual instance of Windows XP and allow incompatible or line-of-business applications to operate within their native environment on the Windows 7 desktop.

Employees will take advantage of enhancements in the Aero® desktop experience. For instance, Peek enables employees to quickly see thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows without leaving their current windows. Also, employees can use Jump Lists and other features of the Windows Taskbar to quickly access documents and files.

For the company’s initial deployment, it used the User State Migration Tool 4.0 in addition to the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010. For its companywide rollout, the company uses Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 for automated deployment.

Because Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are designed to work better together, Betfair is able to implement several features that support greater efficiency for the company’s mobile workforce, such as DirectAccess and BranchCache™. With DirectAccess, employees can connect to the corporate network through any Internet connection, without connecting through a virtual private network (VPN) connection. The BranchCache feature caches frequently used content at local offices and users from the same branch can access the file from the local cache, rather than the corporate office, helping to speed information access.

By September 2009, the company upgraded 350 computers and is on target to have 80 percent of users across Europe upgraded by the end of October 2009.

Benefits

As a result of upgrading to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, Betfair has seen an increase in system performance, an improved user experience, and streamlined IT management.

Increased System Performance

Betfair employees have seen system performance improvements, including logon times and the time it takes applications to launch, since implementing Windows 7. “Even with hardware that is two years old and not scheduled for refresh, we’re seeing a 20 percent increase in system performance for common workflow tasks, and that helps our employees stay productive,” says Burgess.

Improved User Experience

Employees at Betfair have positive feedback for the Aero interface and new features in the operating system, such the ability to “pin” recently used applications to the Taskbar or the ability to quickly access recently used files with Jump Lists. “We have an endless list of tickets in our support system with users clamoring for upgrades to Windows 7—that’s not anything we’ve seen with previous operating systems,” explains Burgess. “They are simple improvements, but when you add them all together, you have the complete package.”

Streamlined IT Management

With an up-to-date IT infrastructure, including Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2, Betfair has a reliable solution that helps it streamline IT management. Betfair can manage remote computers connected to the network with DirectAccess, whenever they are connected to the Internet, without waiting for users to come into the office. The company can also deploy its operating system in less than an hour by using System Center Configuration Manager. “With all of these technologies working together, the result is a reliable, more manageable solution,” concludes Burgess.