Under a tight divestiture timeline, the Retailer needed to rapidly deploy a new WAN network to all stores. To eliminate the complexity of multiple providers, they desired a single provider with a nationwide footprint. Additionally, under pressure to reduce costs, the Retailer decided to replace the MPLS store network deployed by the parent company.

Maintaining MPLS at the core, the Retailer provisioned Verizon Wireless LTE services to the stores in days, not weeks or months, with limited disruption to store operations. To help them meet PCI data security standards, they chose the Cisco ISR 1921 with industry-first Multi-VRF support, delivering Dynamic Mobile Network Routing (DMNR) to provide VPN flexibility and support the demands of Voice and Video prioritization. As such, the Retailer was able to rapidly deploy a Mobile Private Network leveraging DMNR from Cisco and Verizon!

The Retailer had a legacy Point of Sale (PoS) system that needed to be maintained. Changing the PoS system at the time of the network transition would have been too disruptive to store operations. They were also contemplating delivering new services to the stores such as IP Video Surveillance and needed a true edge platform to provide extensibility to support new applications.

The Cisco 1921 ISR handled the PoS issue with ease with a connection to the PoS system via an async Serial interface, and supporting a SLIP PoS protocol conversion to IP delivered over the Verizon Wireless Private Network. Additionally, the Enterprise class voice and video support from Cisco IoS gave the Retailer confidence that the ISR platform could handle new integrated voice and video applications.

The Retailer did consider other low cost routers, but was concerned about the expense and disruption of having to “roll the truck” again to replace a router that could not meet the demands of new business critical applications.

The Retailer did consider “front ending” the existing legacy Cisco ISR G1 router with a low cost LTE router, but given the need to support a separate analogue voice circuit, leverage out of band access to the LTE interface, and ensure they didn’t add complexity and cost from deploying and maintaining separate management systems, they chose the Cisco 1921 ISR. To support in store telephony via the analog circuit, the Retailer leveraged another part of the Cisco portfolio: the Cisco VG 202XM.

With the VG 202XM they were able to use RJ11 interfaces with Cisco IOS Software manageability to increase the functionality of their analog equipment. And, they could manage the gateway and router with one management platform, Cisco Prime. Additionally, the Retailer IT team could access a single support organization for all network components to further reduce complexity and cost.