Success Stories

Global Cash Access (GCA) provides cash access, cash handling products and related information services to 1,000+ casinos and gaming establishments globally, including such legendary establishments as Caesars Entertainment, Flamingo Las Vegas, Foxwoods Resort, MGM Resorts International, Tropicana and Wynn. Licensed in more than 350 jurisdictions in North America, the Caribbean, Macau and Europe, GCA employs 400 people, with offices in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Macau.

In 2010, GCA (www.globalcashaccess.com) processed more than 90 million financial transactions and dispensed more than $18.9 billion in cash to casino floors worldwide. That’s $52 million per day, $2.1 million per hour, $35,000 per minute and $598 per second!

With such volume at stake, reliability and uptime aren’t just nice to have. They’re mission-critical. And since millions of customers have entrusted their personal and financial data to the company, security is no less vital. To meet the growing demands on their network and to continue to lead the industry with the best technology available, GCA recognized the need to upgrade its existing infrastructure.

Several companies acting as one
GCA had long been an all-Cisco shop. According to Jim King, GCA’s vice president of information technology, “Our Cisco equipment had served us very well, but now it was time for an upgrade.” So GCA turned to Nexus, the trusted integration partner they’d worked with for years, to help architect a solution. “To analyze where we were at, and where we wanted to be,” recalls King. “We wanted to offer more services to our customers. We had outgrown our data center, but needed to continue to offer cutting edge solutions.”

Using their unique consultative approach, Nexus performed a complete business analysis with GCA in order to thoroughly understand their strategic objectives and goals for future growth. “They brought in several key people from different segments of their business, and so did we,” recalls King. Both sides focused on creating a long-term plan that would address GCA’s immediate needs and serve as a solid platform for future upgrades.

Key issues for GCA included virtualizing the majority of its data center and getting away from tape backups. Another concern: how to become greener and use fewer resources. According to King, “We sat down with Nexus and learned about Cisco's new joint venture with EMC and VMware - Vblock technology.” Vblock platforms are pre-configured, integrated units with world-class networking, storage, management, and virtualization built into a single unified solution.

“We looked at buying it piece by piece, but we saw that by leveraging these partnerships we were saving $800,000,” says King. What’s more, the management time to handle this network, as well as the implementation time, would be reduced significantly. “You're working with several companies acting as one. Scheduling was so much easier. If we had done it a la carte, who would make sure it was all supported?” Working with Cisco and Nexus alleviated that layer of complexity. Ultimately, says King, “We chose Cisco because of the continuity. If we'd gone with another company, they do not have those partnerships. Whatever the problem is, now there is just one number to call.”

To house the new equipment, GCA selected the 407,000 square foot Las Vegas Switch SuperNAP. With its revolutionary proprietary-design cooling systems and state-of-the art security, the SuperNAP is among the largest, greenest and most secure colocation facilities available anywhere.

The way the data center is built and the cage at Switch is set up, it’s unparalleled security. “And even in a worst-case scenario, we can failover to our original data center at our company headquarters, which is a mirrored environment of what we have in the primary,” says King. “Plus, going from a physical server platform and converting a portion of that to virtual, we are using less of a footprint in our data center, taking less power and less cooling.”

In the past, managing the network required five or six GCA engineers. Today it takes just two. “There were no layoffs, but there were huge savings,” says King. “Now our engineers are focused on more mission-critical objectives, rather than maintenance. It’s a win-win.”

Zero surprises
Working with Nexus during the implementation, according to King, was “absolutely amazing. Our IT is lean and our resources are limited. Nexus knows us; they know our business and our engineers. We laid out a timeline, we laid out materials, we used Nexus project management skills to help us implement. The knowledge transfer was seamless, and so was the installation. Zero surprises. We did not have any problems.”

The benefits to date are impressive. Partnering with Cisco and Nexus, GCA:

• Gained unprecedented scalability and ease of management, freeing engineers for critical projects and reducing operational costs.
• Saved $800,000 in capital costs and is expected to reduce database licensing costs up to 40%.
• Reduced its carbon footprint by several hundred thousand tons per year.

But the primary benefit, according to King, is the foundation for future growth. “GCA has 70% of the market share. Our competitors are pretty far behind us. But we can't take that for granted. We set ourselves apart by investing $2.2 million in a new infrastructure. Our customers demand this level of service.”

Securing financing from GCA’s board took some time - especially in a recession. “We had to lay out our plan, our roadmap,” King recalls.  It took some time to raise the funds, but he says, “The first phase was so smooth that we can now go back to the board and get funding for stage two. We gained credibility.”

Next on GCA’s IT agenda: “As we look to next year, we will be looking at installing new wireless technology and a new VOIP system - for our call center, help desk and salespeople,” says King. “Building a solid virtual office for sales and relationship managers is something we are focused on for next year.”

Why stay with Cisco? “They are best of breed,” says King. “It's a proven technology. At midnight, at one o’clock AM, you are not searching for someone to help you. As a global company we need to reach everywhere in the world. A reliable network is key.”

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