Kerv SD-WAN: Retail Connectivity Without Limits

Published 27/07/23 under:

For today’s high-street retailers, staying ahead of the competition is essential. They are facing a perfect storm where they must differentiate their propositions in a highly competitive market, remain cost-effective and deliver an exceptional experience in their outlets.

As retailers continue to embrace digital transformation, the need for agile and secure network infrastructure is critical. Two powerful technologies that are revolutionising the retail sector are Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). This blog explores the transformative potential of integrating SD-WAN and SASE in retail, offering a comprehensive solution to address connectivity, security and scalability challenges.

Implementing SD-WAN & SASE improves store turn up time and delivers flexible, secure, multi-cloud connectivity

The number of in-store applications that depend on always-on connectivity is  increasing. From augmented reality shopping to video monitoring, stock control and the ability to process transactions securely, connectivity is critical.

Unleashing the Power of SD-WAN

SD-WAN is being widely used in retail because it provides highly flexible and cost-effective network connectivity across multiple store locations. By leveraging SD-WAN, retailers can achieve optimal performance, redundancy and cost efficiency through dynamic traffic routing and intelligent load balancing.

“Large retailers lose up to £65,000 per minute if their store network goes down [itic report]”

SD-WAN’s ability to seamlessly integrate different connection types, such as broadband, 4G, 5G, MPLS and even satellite, ensures reliable network connectivity, regardless of location. This empowers retailers to streamline their operations, improve collaboration and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

Driving Retail Agility with SASE

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is a transformative networking and security architecture that converges network and security functionalities into a unified cloud-native platform. SASE combines wide area networking, zero-trust security and cloud-native architecture to create a comprehensive solution for distributed enterprises. In the retail industry, where a multitude of endpoints and applications need secure access, SASE offers a complete solution by integrating a holistic security framework with integrated services like secure web gateways, zero-trust principles and multi-cloud access. This delivers a direct route to the applications that help retailers to differentiate themselves.

Zero-Trust Security

One of the primary concerns for retailers is ensuring the security and integrity of their data, particularly when it comes to customer information and payment transactions. By integrating SD-WAN with SASE, retailers can establish a secure and compliant network infrastructure.

“33% of retailers have experienced a breach in the last 12 months [British Retail Consortium 2023]”

SASE’s zero-trust model ensures that only authenticated and authorised users gain access to critical resources. Additionally, SASE’s cloud-native architecture enables consistent security policies and updates across all store locations, enhancing visibility and control for retail IT teams.

The retail industry is undergoing a rapid transformation and technology is at the forefront of this evolution. By integrating SD-WAN and SASE, retailers can address critical challenges related to network connectivity, security and scalability.

SD-WAN is not a single standard solution, from SD-WAN lite offerings to complex, multi-network solutions, creating a network that is matched to the specific retailer’s requirements is essential.

Kerv combine the power of SD-WAN and SASE enabling retailers to create agile, secure, and scalable network infrastructure that drives operational efficiency, enhances customer experience and enables future innovation.

Exceptional Scalability and Streamlined Operations

The integration of SD-WAN and SASE brings significant operational benefits to retail organisations. By centralising network and security management in the cloud, retailers can simplify network provisioning, configuration, and troubleshooting. This streamlines IT operations, reduces the need for on-site equipment and enables retailers to scale their network rapidly as their business expands.

SASE offers a holistic security framework with integrated services like secure web gateways, zero-trust principles and multi-cloud access.

With SD-WAN and SASE, retail organisations can efficiently adapt to changing market dynamics and seize new growth opportunities without compromising network performance or security.

Always-on Trading

One of our customers, an international home-improvement company, had a problem with offline-trading. If their network was unavailable, they couldn’t process EPOS transactions or fulfil click and collect orders. They also needed access to SaaS and cloud applications and wanted to retire an expensive MPLS network.

The integration of SD-WAN and SASE delivers always-on connectivity at a significantly reduced cost.

We implemented a new SASE based SD-WAN network, which reduced cost and delivered always-on connectivity. It ensured continuous trading; faster store turn up and enabled electronic in-store catalogues.

Conclusion

The retail industry is undergoing a rapid transformation and technology is at the forefront of this evolution. By integrating SD-WAN and SASE, retailers can address critical challenges related to network connectivity, security and scalability.

SD-WAN is not a single standard solution, from SD-WAN lite offerings to complex, multi-network solutions, creating a network that is matched to the specific retailer’s requirements is essential.

Kerv combine the power of SD-WAN and SASE enabling retailers to create agile, secure, and scalable network infrastructure that drives operational efficiency, enhances customer experience and enables future innovation

Bonus content

Unsure about some of the terms referenced? Watch our short SD-WAN and SASE Jargon Buster video and get up to speed.

Watch this short video where Graham Brown, Kerv Connect’s CTO, explains why choosing the right SD-WAN solution is key to exceptional customer experience.

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