Save A Lot Beefing Up Enterprise IT Infrastructure
Save A Lot has tapped Aruba to help facilitate its transition to a wholesale model, deploying the infrastructure in its St. Louis headquarters, 13 wholesale distribution centers, and nearly 1,000 retail stores in 32 states.
Save A Lot’s growth and expansion strategy has necessitated increased secure and reliable connectivity in its distribution centers. Its previous network was slower and more inefficient, and it wanted the new HQ to serve as a collaborative, mobile-first environment.
The Aruba ESP solutions, delivered by AT&T as a managed service, provide Save A Lot with access switches, Wi-Fi 6 access points and mobility controllers, ClearPass Policy Manager for full wired and wireless network access control, and Aruba Central for cloud-based management. AT&T will provide site surveys, structured cabling, installation and management of the Aruba ESP solution for Save A Lot.
In its stores — the company is in the process of modernizing its entire fleet — Save A Lot now has a centralized, cloud-based platform to manage all aspects of its network, allowing expansion of mobile devices, new technologies and applications, and IoT devices.
[Read more: Save A Lot Accelerates Plans to Modernize Store Fleet]
“We believe Aruba will be a critical unlock for our IT infrastructure and are thrilled to be working with the team to implement a broad range of solutions designed to help us maximize productivity in all of our facilities,” said Jennifer Hopper, Save A Lot CIO, in a statement. “Whether in our distribution centers, home office or our stores, empowering our team members with fast and frictionless network access is a top priority.”
Key factors in choosing the solution included its ability to provide a single pane of glass for management of the unified infrastructure, Zero Touch Provisioning for easier configuration and maintenance, and APIs for critical integrations, including with ServiceNow and Splunk.
The ClearPass technology, meanwhile, harmonizes the retailer’s ecosystem technologies for a more secure and reliable network experience, which Hopper described it as being foundational to the company’s network security moving forward.
“With ClearPass, we’re able to create a Zero Trust environment and embrace capabilities like dynamic segmentation that are crucial for our varied distribution centers, retail stores, and office environments, ensuring that all users and devices can be securely onboarded to the network,” she added.
In Save A Lot’s new HQ, the infrastructure helps facilitate collaborative technology like smart conference rooms, Microsoft Teams, and video broadcasts for the 1,000-plus employees.
Save A Lot plans to complete phase one of its Aruba ESP deployment by the end of October 2021, which will include seven of its distribution centers, its St. Louis-based corporate stores, and its headquarters.
The second phase will connect the remaining distribution centers and complete the rollout to its licensed partners for the rest of its retail stores.
