Casinos require robust data storage systems to handle their vast and varied data needs securely and efficiently. The recent attack against MGM Resorts properties or the controversy and allegations against Resort World Las Vegas have only served to stress the paramount need for protection and casinos’ ability to bring back their systems quickly and make them operational with minimal downtime.
This article reviews the top five use cases for on-premises data storage solutions in a casino data center and how Nexsan can deliver reliable, cost-effective, and immutable storage to fulfill those needs.
The Top Five Use Cases for On-Premises Data Storage Solutions in a Casino Data Center
#1 – Surveillance Video Storage and CCTV (Close Circuit Television)
Casinos operate under strict surveillance requirements to ensure security and comply with gaming regulations. High-resolution video generates massive amounts of data that need to be stored securely and accessed quickly. Casinos need on-premises data storage solutions that deliver the scalability and performance to accommodate hundreds or even thousands of video streams generated by their DVS (digital video surveillance) systems.
Casinos also require immutable storage to prevent tampering and to maintain a clear chain of custody for forensic analysis. In addition, long-term retention is fundamental to meeting strict government and gaming industry regulations for privacy, protection, and retention of video evidence.
At a high level, the following are the challenges that casinos face with surveillance video that an on-premises data storage solution must meet:
- Greater capacity for growing live and archived high-definition streams
- Higher density for space-constrained surveillance control environments
- Better performance for multi-stream capture and playback
- Superior reliability to enable continuous surveillance operations
- Longer retention periods for regulatory compliance
- Lowering operating expenses (OPEX) and total cost of ownership (TCO) for their data storage needs
To exceed the modern-day casino’s surveillance storage needs, Nexsan E-Series maximizes surveillance storage density and power efficiency in a minimal footprint, consuming less than one-third of conventional surveillance arrays’ power and rack space, dramatically reducing surveillance OPEX and TCO.
#2 – Gaming Data Analytics
Casinos collect extensive data from slot machines and gaming tables to analyze customer behavior, gaming trends, and machine performance.
Storing this data on-premises allows for rapid processing and analytics, which is crucial for real-time decision-making and maintaining a competitive edge.
Nexsan Unity NV 10000 delivers all-flash NVMe technology for optimal performance, storage space, and versatility. This platform can also serve as a FASTier ® cache acceleration layer to speed up data access.
#3 – Transactional Data
Every financial transaction – from bets placed at gaming tables to payments at restaurants and retail outlets – requires immediate, reliable, and secure data recording and storage.
On-prem SAN storage can handle the high transactional throughput and provide the necessary reliability.
Both Nexsan E-Series and Unity are versatile SAN solutions that meet the challenges of data growth, demanding workloads, and high-resiliency requirements that casinos face.
#4 – Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Casinos maintain extensive CRM systems to track guest preferences, gambling habits, and loyalty program data.
This sensitive information must be securely stored on-premises to protect customer privacy and ensure compliance with data protection laws.
Nexsan storage solutions are designed to help all casinos meet their compliance and rigid security requirements head-on, securely, and efficiently.
#5 – Regulatory Compliance and Reporting
Casinos are subject to numerous regulations that mandate the secure retention of gaming records, financial transactions, and customer interactions.
On-premises data storage enables casinos to maintain data sovereignty control over access and fulfill retention requirements. This is particularly important when immutable records are required for compliance.
Nexsan Assureon is a cost-effective and highly reliable data storage solution ideal for a casino’s regulatory compliance and immutability requirements. Assureon ensures the security of your digital assets through a combination of unique file fingerprinting, asset serialization, metadata authentication, a private blockchain, and a robust data verification algorithm.
Data stored in Assureon remains immutable and highly resistant to ransomware. It’s also optimized for Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), enabling organizations to easily and automatically adhere to their internal data retention, deletion, privacy, protection and risk mitigation guidelines.
Conclusion
Casinos face a range of challenges for their data storage needs that on-premises solutions must address. Those challenges include:
- Implementing high-performing, reliable, cost-effective, and immutable data storage solutions for the countless hours of digital video surveillance, which needs to be retained and remain accessible.
- Storing the extensive gaming data to analyze customer behavior, gaming trends, and machine performance.
- Retaining the mountains of financial transactional data casinos process for immediate, reliable, and secure data recording and storage.
- Storing sensitive data in casino CRMs securely, adhering to all regulatory requirements.
- Maintaining data sovereignty, control over access, and meeting retention requirements, with immutability required for compliance and reporting.
For each of these use cases, the high availability, performance, and security features of on-premises data storage systems, like those offered by Nexsan, are essential to support the 24/7 operations of casinos and ensure regulatory compliance and data integrity.
For more information on Nexsan’s entire suite of high-performing, reliable, and cost-effective data storage solutions for casinos, visit https://www.nexsan.com.