Harrah’s Altiris Overhaul

February 2008

Agenda

• About Harrah’s• The Altiris Connection• Business Challenges and Objectives• Architecture Review• Deployment Strategy• The Road Ahead

This presentation and all trademarks appearing in this presentation are the sole and exclusive property of Harrah's License Company, LLC for use by its related companies (collectively, "Harrah's"). This presentation and its contents are confidential and proprietary to Harrah's and may not be used or reproduced in whole or in part without Harrah’s express prior written authorization. Trademarks not owned by Harrah's that appear in this

presentation are the property of the respective owners.

© 2005, Harrah’s License Company, LLC

Who is Harrah’s Entertainment?

• Founded in 1937 by William F. Harrah in Reno, Nevada

• First casino company listed on the NYSE• 2007 Revenues $10Bil• Privately held as of Jan ’08 by Texas

Pacific and Apollo Management• World's largest provider of branded

casino entertainment– Domestic

• Harrah’s• Horseshoe• Caesars

– International• Conrad Resort, Punta del Este,

Uruguay• London Clubs International• Future… Spain, Bahamas,

Slovenia, South America

Harrah’s Information Technology – the Numbers

• Forty Locations– Each has its own IT Department– Local IT staff manages PCs and Servers– User Administration

• Corporate IT - Wintel– Sets infrastructure standards– Implement new technology– Provide 3rd level of support– Maintain Data Center

• Total Managed computers– 1200 Windows Servers– 20000 Client PCs

Putting it in Perspective

January 2004

Approx. 20 locations

~10K clients

March 2004

Harrah’s acquires Horseshoe

3 add’l locations

~12K clients

Harrah’s begins the transition to Altiris

June 2005

Harrah’s acquires Caesar’s Entertainment

9 add’l locations

~20K clients

January 2006

Primary engineer focused on Altiris

project transfers out of dept; taken over by a

2nd engineer

December 2006

Primary engineer focused on Altiris project leaves the

company

April 2007

I am now the lead

engineer…

February 2008

Deployment is well underway and I

am still here!

Business Challenges and Objectives

Challenges• What do we have??

– No centralized hardware/software inventory for all Windows workstations and servers

– Software license compliance is fuzzy; licenses are under- or over- purchased

• Are we vulnerable??– Ability to deploy Windows security patches and provide compliance reports

on coverage• Why does it take so long??

– Bare metal deployment and application rollouts cannot be done in an efficient, timely manner

• How can we help??– Help Desk is unable to provide highest level of service without remote

visibility to their customer’s desktops• When can we use our investment??

– Current (04/07) Altiris environment is unreliable

Business Challenges and Objectives

Objectives• Complete the deployment of Altiris agents to all PCs and Servers, providing the

ability to analyze and audit inventory– AD Discovery / Agent Push– Routine cleanup

• Maintain security compliance with Patch Management• Enhance Helpdesk services via Remote Control (Carbon Copy)

– Leverage security: authentication, encryption– Audit usage

• Increase end-user productivity with Software Deployment• Increase IT efficiency with Software Deployment and Imaging

Architecture Review – June 2007

• One NS Server for 20K clients

• Not all Sites had a defined Package Server

• Solutions out of date

• Reputation as “computer killer”

• Server Performance renders Altiris unusable

Deployment Strategy

• Infrastructure Review– Stabilize infrastructure by deploying additional Notification Server(s)– Rehome agents to load balance across Notification servers for optimal

performance– Update all installed solution components for enhanced features and bug

fixes– Configure SQL and Altiris for optimal coverage and performance

• Upgrade to SQL 2005• IT Accessibility

– Provide a central console for Reporting and Carbon Copy access (Reporting Server) let the Notification Servers do their job!

– Implement Role-based security each location can only access “their” resources

– Develop Training for Property and Corporate IT

Deployment Strategy

• Usability – areas of focus– Reporting– Remote Control– Patch Management– Software Delivery

Architecture - Evolving

• Split NS over two servers

•Move Reporting Server to same site as NS

• Define Package Server for all sites (currently co-located on Property file servers)

•In progress: “multi-purpose” Altiris Server to additional locations (DS, Package, PXE)

•In progress: Continue to evaluate NS performance; evaluate need for 3rd NS?

Solution Benefits to-date

• Inventory Reporting aids in identifying and budgeting– hardware replacements/upgrades– software upgrades/license purchases/renewals

• Patch Management and Reporting keeping Windows environment up-to-date; fulfillment of PCI compliance goals

– Moving toward fully automated Server patch strategy• IT Workload reduction through automated software deployment• Help Desk efficiency increased; remote access is audited

Solutions In Progress

• Develop training for Software Deployment; hand over to Property IT– NS and DS methodology

• Roll out updated Altiris Deployment Solution / PXE / Package server to Property locations

• Hardware Independent Images and PXE Rollout across all locations• Customer Software Portal• Application Metering and Denial of Authorized software• Dell Server snap-ins for NS and DS

– Manage drivers/firmware– Image assist

• Symantec snap-ins– Backup Exec– Anti-virus