While the speed of business is always fast, it is of particular importance when products have an extremely limited lifespan. Revenues are at stake as well as customer satisfaction and loyalty. A big problem arises when the speed of business continues to accelerate, but the infrastructure on which it depends is unable to keep up.
Networks everywhere are undergoing rapid change to accommodate the speed, agility, and flexibility that business today requires. Those that foresee issues are seeking and implementing networks solutions that will continue to drive business into the long-term future. SD-WAN is one of these solutions, changing the way businesses transact, how they meet customer demand, and future-proofing infrastructures that could never provide these opportunities.
Today’s blog highlights Cemstone, a family of companies that provide concrete and supplies to customers throughout the mid-west. Given the lifecycle of concrete, it is important to use it relatively quickly after it is mixed or the entire batch could be lost. Additionally, mixing concrete and then not being able to receive or send orders for it because a network is working intermittently leads to high levels of spoilage and unhappy customers.
With over 90 locations that both take orders and mix and deliver the concrete, Cemstone needed to be able to connect all its sites with its main office (where it’s ERP system was hosted) and each other to provide seamless and exceptional access to cloud applications to meet the demands of its customers. SD-WAN became the answer, enabling uninterrupted connectivity, lower costs as compared to the existing legacy infrastructure (that included MPLS) and alternative networking options, and fast installation times.
Renodis, a VeloCloud, now part of VMware partner, worked closely with Cemstone’s IT team to roll out the VMware NSX SD-WAN by VeloCloud solution to all 90 sites, helping Cemstone achieve its goals.
Challenges
- High cost, slow legacy infrastructure built on MPLS
- Network downtime was impacting ability to serve customers, impacting sales opportunities
- Slow new site deployments
Results
- Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) was reduced by more than 50% at MPLS sites
- Reduced new site deployments from weeks to about four hours
- Simple and proactive complete network management
- Ensure network uptime to increase sales and product delivery
To read the full Cemstone case study that includes the selection process, networking needs, deployment, explanation of its results and more, click here.
