With Hughes Managed Services, The Vitamin Shoppe Gains a NextGen Network
Customer
"We recognized that our legacy network required upgrades. To support lifelong wellness for our customers, we must have next-generation network technologies and capabilities we can rely on to deliver quality, innovation, and expertise in everything we do. Hughes has been a great partner in helping us achieve the high-performing and secure, cloud-first network we envisioned – all within a cost structure we can sustain for the long-term." Andy Laudato, Chief Operating Officer
The Vitamin Shoppe®, a national health and wellness retailer, helps people become their best selves through the largest assortment of supplements at retail in the U.S., including vitamins, sports nutrition, weight management products, aromatherapy, herbs, superfoods, natural beauty products and more. Each of the 700+ stores across the U.S. are staffed by knowledgeable Health Enthusiasts® who deliver high-quality nutritional and self-care solutions to customers, along with expert guidance to support personalized health goals.
Challenge
The Vitamin Shoppe is an innovative retailer, eager to deploy digital tools to better engage shoppers, encourage loyalty and create customized experiences. However, their legacy network technologies required new tools to create a secure, cloud-centered digital operation nationwide at every store.
The Vitamin Shoppe sought a high-performing, next generation network capable of delivering its well-established security protocols — enforced at every store — from the cloud. They wanted a network flexible and agile enough to position the company for future franchise growth and the addition of 5G services.
Hughes Solution
To meet these requirements, The Vitamin Shoppe selected Hughes to deliver an entirely new network utilizing a cloud-based architecture and “Network-as-a-Service” (NaaS) delivery model. The HughesON™ Managed Services solution features industry-leading, high-performance Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) with a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) security framework – delivering network functionality, performance optimization and security policies.
What’s more, by moving away from the hub-and-spoke model of data center connectivity, Hughes enabled The Vitamin Shoppe’s network to become more robust and cost effective. Applications are easier to run, manage, operate and optimize.
The NaaS approach positions The Vitamin Shoppe to get the most out of IT-based capital expenditures. At each store, each month, the retailer can leverage advanced networking technologies, capabilities and security solutions from Hughes, with confidence that their network capabilities will remain on the leading edge.
For The Vitamin Shoppe network, Hughes partnered with VMware and Fortinet, two leaders in SD-WAN and security, to design and deliver a solution that includes:
- SD-WAN and security delivered via a distributed network of Hughes Managed SD-WAN Gateways connected to cloud-based Firewalls, which reduces the impact stringent security processes on edge devices can have on a store’s network.
- Network architecture built for resiliency and to ensure against store downtime, including protection from brown outs and black outs.
- Connection flexibility between network endpoints, including edge-to-edge, edge-to-data center and edge-to-cloud.
- Ability to scale effortlessly to support growth or surge events, like community expos, race day activities and other health-focused gatherings.
- A robust security posture with automatic policy orchestration that can span the entire network at the push of a button.
- Access to the Hughes portal, 24/7 support and a nationwide team of field technicians.
Go here for more information, about Hughes Managed SD-WAN solution.
