How PointsBet simplified their cloud network and built a more efficient, more secure online business platform
IntellectIT and Fortinet prove to be a winning combination
It didn’t take very long after they entered the US Market for Australian-based online sports and wagering company PointsBet to experience rapid business growth. This growth was so rapid, that the complexity of its expanding online server-network, and the resources needed to maintain it, were becoming a major operational issue. They turned to IntellectIT for support.
The Opportunity
In June, 2018 the US State of New Jersey legalised online sports betting. For PointsBet, this was a opportunity to launch into the North American Market. The had an established business with their cloud-based wagering platform, offering online sports and racing wagering products. Their timing could not have been better. Other US States promptly followed New Jersey’s lead, and around the same period, more markets around the world were opening up. For PointsBet, who were established in 2015, once they got their foothold into the US, things moved quickly.
The Challenge
PointsBets’s uses public cloud infrastructure to host its servers. This is common approach for many businesses riding the wave of the burgeoning online economy.
The technological challenges facing PointsBet were primarily geographical. Their wagering platform has been designed for reliability and resilience and each of its geographical locations are connected to each other. As their geographical footprint expanded, the effort needed to ensure that each side was inter-connected in a ‘spider-web’ like faction became increasingly labour intensive and unwieldy. When a new site was added all of the existing sites had to be updated. It was complex, expensive and prone to errors.
VIDEO: Director of IT Operations at PointsBet, Andrei Goutnik, gets into the details of some their networking deployment challenges they faced when they started to experience rapid business growth
Security shortfalls of cloud infrastructure
Another fundamental issue of their deployment lay in the highly-resistant and ‘elastic’ nature of public cloud infrastructure. The security features provided by the major cloud providers have been lacking. Features that are regarded as essential in the on-premises world, such as next generation firewalls performing deep-packet inspection, are not always available and often not considered by companies when they deploy to the public cloud. PointsBet was seeking to deploy best practice security design and treat the public cloud deployment in the same as would have for an on-premise environment.
VIDEO: IntellectIT Director Steve Allan about virtual firewalls.
The Solution
PointsBet brief to IntellectIT was to simplify PointsBet growing network across their international operations and provide best-in-class security.
Intellect IT thoroughly assessed Pointsbet’s existing network infrastructure, focusing on current capabilities, immediate needs, and long-term business objectives. This crucial step allowed Intellect IT to grasp the unique demands of Pointsbet’s rapid growth and the evolving security landscape.
VIDEO: IntellectIT Director Max Soukhomlinov talks about the one big advantage they had with the project.
Soukhomlinov
After careful consideration, Intellect IT selected Fortinet as the most suitable vendor to meet PointsBet’s specific requirements. The choice was made in favour of Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN and next-generation firewalls for their scalability, security, and ease of integration. Intellect IT’s decades-long experience with Fortinet’s solutions guaranteed a best-of-breed approach.
Recognising the need for a more agile and scalable network infrastructure, Intellect IT transitioned Pointsbet from a mesh IPsec tunnel topology to a solution centred around Fortinet’s SD-WAN, integrated with Azure Virtual WAN. This strategic update simplified network management and significantly bolstered security measures.
The solution was templated, making it effortlessly replicable and straightforward to deploy at new sites as Pointsbet’s operations expanded. Its design was inherently robust and could accommodate a diverse range of internet links, laying a resilient foundation for Pointsbet’s ongoing growth.
Post-deployment, Intellect IT provided ongoing support, optimising the network’s performance and ensuring its adaptability to the changing needs of PointsBet.
VIDEO: IntellectIT Director Steve Allan talks about working with PointsBet to develop an architecture layout
The Results
The overhaul of Pointsbet’s network infrastructure led to significant improvements in operational efficiency. IT staff could now deploy new sites within an hour – previously it took over a week to do this. It eliminatied the previous laborious processes.
The integration of Fortinet’s advanced security solutions strengthened PointsBet’s defences, offering superior threat protection and ensuring company and customer data security.
Additionally, the adoption of Fortinet’s SD-WAN brought specific tangible benefits to Pointsbet. Network traffic management became more intelligent and dynamic, allowing for automatic prioritisation of critical applications and real-time adjustment to network conditions. This ensured optimal performance and reliability of essential services, particularly during high-demand events. The SD-WAN solution’s deep visibility into network and application performance further enabled proactive troubleshooting and fine-tuning, significantly reducing downtime and improving user experience.
Cost efficiency was another notable advantage. By leveraging various types of internet connections and the ability to route traffic based on quality and cost dynamically, Pointsbet achieved substantial savings on connectivity costs without compromising performance or security. The scalability of Fortinet’s solution also meant that PointsBet could expand its network as needed without substantial incremental costs, aligning with its growth strategy.
This project marked a significant advancement in PointsBet’s technological capabilities, enabling effective scaling of operations while maintaining robust security measures. The collaboration with Intellect IT and the adoption of Fortinet’s technology resolved Pointsbet’s immediate challenges and prepared them for future growth, demonstrating the effectiveness of strategic planning and partnerships in harnessing technology for business success.
VIDEO: Andrei Goutnik, Steve Allan and Max Soukhomlinov discuss the outcome of the project
Why Fortinet
Founded more than 20 years ago in Sunnyvale, California, Fortinet continues to be a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. With a unrivaled portfolio of over 50 enterprise-grade products is the largest integrated offering available, delivering proven cybersecurity everywhere you need it. More than 730,000 customers trust Fortinet solutions, which are among the most deployed, most patented, and
most validated in the industry. Consistently ranked by Gartner as leader in the SD-WAN and Network, Firewalls Magic Quadrants. Fortinet is recognised by independent analysts as a market leader.
VIDEO: Simon Bray, Cloud & Alliances Manager, Fortinet
Why IntellectIT
For over 20 years Intellect IT has provided excellence in IT support, advice and service. The best technology solutions are designed for purpose. We offer a wide variety of solutions from leading vendors and are backed by experience. Our team has expertise across the IT spectrum. We have the solutions to meet your IT challenges.
We enjoy solving challenging problems for customers and coming up with solutions that solve real world business problems. We are one of a handful of Fortinet partners capable of delivering solutions such as this in the public cloud space.
VIDEO: IntellectIT Director Max Soukhomlinov and Fortinet’s Simon Bray talk about the outcome.
