London, UK - August 2006 - Ladbrokes, the UK's largest betting company and the largest retail bookmaker in the world, has renewed its commitment to IBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) with a new four-year licensing and maintenance deal. Ladbrokes will continue to run its online betting application, OpenBet, on Informix across three locations; London, Kuala Lumpur and in Gibraltar.
IBM Premier Business Partner and Informix specialist, Ardenta Limited, is working with IBM and Ladbrokes to deliver the best solution to meet the betting company's needs. The original four-year deal has been updated to deliver IDS version 9, where the new platform will support Ladbrokes' sports books and gaming sites. The contract covers a set of licenses to support the company's large scale processing requirements and delivers the scalability demanded by the company's continued growth. The upgrade and its implementation will be completed in July.
Commenting on the new deal, Steve Maxwell, CIO, Ladbrokes, says: "The nature of our business means we require a strategic data server that virtually eliminates downtime and automates many of the tasks associated with deploying missioncritical enterprise systems. IBM's Informix Dynamic Server has proved itself utterly reliable and delivers the performance and availability we need."
Continuing, Maxwell says: "Predicable total cost of ownership and security were also imperative to our decision to renew the contract. Informix Dynamic Server helps reduce maintenance costs through enhanced administrative features, plus ongoing maintenance support delivers the latest updates and patches free of charge as part of our contract."
Ladbrokes offers customers an attractive 'one account' option, which the Informix platform supports. Ladbrokes customers select a single user name that provides access to all channels whether web, phone or television, and across every product. "This option is real differentiator for us, enabling our customers to enjoy a single relationship with Ladbrokes," concludes Maxwell.
Commenting on the market for Informix, Neil Truby, cofounder of Ardenta Ltd, says: "We are seeing an increase uptake of Informix, particularly from industries like online gaming and gambling, where the need for continuous uptime as well as low total cost of ownership is key. We look forward to working with IBM to continue to deliver the best possible licensing deals for our customers.
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