Paddy Power

Case study | Paddy Power plc
Paddy Power plc, a major international betting
and gaming group, has operations in Australia,
Ireland, Italy and the UK. Based in Dublin,
the business operates 500 traditional
high-street betting oces in Ireland
and the UK as well as online and mobile
betting services. Online activities
generate approximately 75 per cent of the
company’s prots. Since its foundation in
1988, Paddy Power dierentiates itself
from competitors by regarding betting
as an entertaining and fun experience.
Solution
Global, enterprise-level testing platform
Paddy Power operates web-based services
from primary and secondary data centres
with an active-active conguration.
The company had traditionally employed
open-source application performance tools
to monitor website loading. To enhance its
software performance monitoring, Paddy
Power researched several vendors’ oerings
and consulted with Australian colleagues,
who were familiar with HP LoadRunner.
This performance testing application
forms an integral part of HP Performance
Center, a global, end-to-end, enterprise-
level performance testing platform.
“The ability to readily monitor application
performance, a proven track record, external
support provisioning and global licensing
consolidation made HP Performance
Center an attractive proposition,”
states Valentine. “Our engineers use
this powerful tool to assess application
loading and make appropriate changes
to ensure our website is always ready.”
Benets
Accelerates product introductions
HP Performance Center tests a wide range
of applications and is especially useful to
industries handling high volumes of internet
trac and even more so for businesses that
employ both web and mobile technologies.
The software’s advanced monitoring
and analysis tools identify performance
bottlenecks, allowing Paddy Power’s IT
specialists to hotx applications to satisfy
the business’s performance requirements.
“Deploying HP Performance Center has
brought even more rigor to our testing
regime and we’ve undoubtedly accelerated
new product introductions,” says Valentine.
“End-users also nd the software easier to
learn than most freeware oerings, helping to
recruit and build a more eective testing team
while maintaining Service Level Agreements.”
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