C&S optimizes efficiency and productivity of grocery supply chain with business-driven Aruba SD-WAN

Grocery stores across the U.S. rely on C&S Wholesale Grocers to optimize supplies, ensuring freshness and availability to meet consumer demands. So when its legacy MPLS-based wide-area network experienced unpredictable periods of downtime, C&S looked for a more reliable network solution.

Leonard Bernstein, senior director of infrastructure and service delivery for C&S, explains, “The market has changed so dramatically that every second of downtime causes risk to our customers. Volume is growing, and customers need real-time information. We can no longer sustain a circuit outage of any length.”

Demand for Data Drives WAN Transformation

For American grocery stores and supermarkets, keeping shelves stocked and the produce section filled with just the right fruits and vegetables takes more than having a well-supplied warehouse. It takes data. And that’s exactly what C&S Wholesale Grocers delivers.

C＆S成立于1918年，在杂货店供应行业拥有创新历史，如今已成为商业智能和自动化的行业领导者。为了帮助其客户确切知道要订购的产品，以及何时C＆S依靠在两个东海岸数据中心运行的复杂数据分析应用程序，这些应用程序连接到其WAN的60个仓库。

C&S relied primarily on MPLS, with backup to dedicated internet access (DIA) links, and in some cases 4G LTE. However, these backup circuits stood mostly idle, limiting their value. Worse, failing over network circuits was a tedious, manual effort that often disrupted access to vital grocery supply data.

Improving Network Resilience and Efficiency

To improve both resilience and efficiency of the network, Bernstein saw SD-WAN as the right solution.

伯恩斯坦指出：“我们的最大挑战是更好地利用现有电路。”“我们想删除人类元素并更多地自动化，利用情报来提升网络服务，并无缝处理电路故障而不会影响客户。这一切都指向SD-WAN。”

After evaluating several SD-WAN vendors, Bernstein and vice president of infrastructure, Philippe Bourdon, selected theAruba EdgeConnect Enterprise来自惠普（Hewlett Packard）企业公司Aruba。该决定的关键是阿鲁巴进行的深入投资回报（ROI）分析。

The ROI analysis quantified the dramatic positive impact of an SD-WAN built on the EdgeConnect platform. For example, by reducing dependence on MPLS, maximizing bandwidth utilization, and improving network resilience, the ROI analysis projected annual savings in telecommunication expenses of up to 60 percent.

EdgeConnect平台优化网络资源

C&S deployed the EdgeConnect platform in its two data centers and is rolling it out to all 60 warehouses. Now, where EdgeConnect is deployed, C&S intelligently uses all available circuits simultaneously, optimizing network resilience and performance, as well as maximizing the value of its investments in transport technologies.

此外，伯恩斯坦和他的团队还实施了可选的阿鲁巴促进WAN优化，可在EdgeConnect平台上获得，可通过重复数据删除和压缩来有效处理文件传输并减少带宽消耗。

Meets business and application SLAs

To meet application performance objectives and business service-level agreements, Bernstein and his team built company-specific application overlays using the阿鲁巴Orchestratormanagement console. Each overlay ensures that a specific application class is guaranteed the network resources it needs based on business priority.

例如，为了确保最终用户获得语音和视频通话的最高质量经验，基于云的RingCentral应用程序被归类为“实时”，以使其在SD-WAN上的首要任务。大型机应用程序，Citrix服务和其他关键任务应用程序被归类为“关键”，而Microsoft Office 365等应用程序则被归类为“低”。

SD-WAN, routing, and security on a unified platform

阿鲁巴EdgeConnect provides SD-WAN, routing interoperability, and stateful zone-based firewall in a centrally managed platform, allowing C&S to consolidate the WAN edge, retiring its traditional routers and firewalls.

Bernstein says, “Our legacy hardware lacked the intelligence for any sophisticated routing. We’d have to create elaborate scripts to do the kind of routing EdgeConnect does out of the box.”

The built-in routing intelligence and security in EdgeConnect means that C&S warehouses can now break out locally to trusted SaaS and cloud applications instead of backhauling to the data centers as in the past. C&S also takes advantage of the strong integration between EdgeConnect and Zscaler cloud-delivered security services to apply additional inspection of internet-destined traffic.

Enables Strategic Cloud Initiatives

事实证明，Aruba SD-WAN的性能，可靠性和安全性在使C＆S能够采用RingCentral等云解决方案以及包括Microsoft Office 365在内的越来越多的SaaS应用程序。

Bernstein explains, “We wanted to collapse six disparate phone systems and various collaboration apps into a unified cloud solution, but we needed a network that could support it. EdgeConnect not only brought the SD-WAN capabilities to enable our cloud strategy, but also provides strong integration with RingCentral, which solidified our decision.”

更高的团队生产力和服务质量

With reliable, high-performance network access to applications and grocery supply data across the business, C&S enables its teams to work more productively and deliver the highest quality of service to customers.

In fact, thanks to optimal utilization of all available bandwidth and advanced SD-WAN capabilities, such as path conditioning and dynamic path control, C&S has calculated a 60 percent performance improvement for users accessing applications in the cloud and the data centers.

提供增强的工作经验

Another prime benefit for C&S is increased WAN uptime and resilience. With an SD-WAN built on EdgeConnect, circuit brownouts or outages no longer disrupt productivity or customer services.

伯恩斯坦说：“我们的方法是实施三种不同类型的技术，并使用SD-WAN来对我们的投资产生乘数效应。”“ EdgeConnect为跨MPL，DIA和4G LTE汇总带宽提供了智能。SD-WAN处理4G LTE很好。而且，当MPLS或DIA电路上发生问题时，我们还看到SD-WAN会自动自我修复。”

伯恩斯坦补充说：“我们将仓库从次优的绩效带到了增强的工作体验，为员工提供了更有效地访问数据中心和云的应用程序。”

最大的业务影响是快乐的客户

Ultimately, what does an intelligent, efficient SD-WAN mean to IT and C&S as a business? For Bernstein and his department, the benefits of SD-WAN come back as increased engineering resource capacity.

伯恩斯坦说：“与其在仓库中进行中断，也没有试图弄清为什么通往某个路径的路线不起作用，我的工程师现在可以专注于对业务更具战略意义的项目。”

He concludes, “The biggest impact on the business is happier customers. Rather than dealing with problems every day, like slow logins or poor internet connectivity, employees are able to just do their jobs and provide our customers with the best service possible.”