SASE in Retail

Retailers and hospitality providers are fervently dedicated to delivering an outstanding customer experience. Central to this commitment is connectivity, with retailers aiming to consistently provide a positive experience across various channels (both in-store and online) and diverse geographical locations. Retail establishments often offer connectivity-related amenities, such as guest Wi-Fi, within their stores.

Moreover, retailers heavily depend on fast and secure connectivity for their business-critical systems. Essential operations, including communications, inventory status checks, and credit card transactions processing, require reliable and speedy network connections. As cyber threats have risen over time, there is a notable shift of network components towards cloud-based solutions in this industry.

Managing Connectivity and Security for Multiple Locations

Retailers demand high-performance and secure connectivity for numerous geographically diverse locations. The necessity to interconnect retail establishments with each other and a central data center is imperative. However, the conventional approach of using legacy Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) or Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which has been prevalent thus far, proves to be expensive, complex, unreliable, and insecure.

Reduce Costs and Increase Efficiency

Retailers aim to reduce costs and enhance productivity, yet traditional MPLS links are expensive, and VPN tunneling introduces complexity. Opting for the public Internet as an alternative proves inefficient and unreliable, given that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) often prioritize cost savings over performance, potentially leading to issues such as packet loss, jitter, or latency.

Administrative Overhead

Retailers, whether providing complimentary guest Wi-Fi or depending on essential business systems, must ensure both high performance and security to prevent revenue loss. The acquisition, management, and updating of a technology stack that addresses these requirements pose significant challenges. Moreover, the migration of data center services, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Point of Sale (PoS) systems, to the cloud necessitates IT teams to learn and manage an entirely new set of tools.