NRF 2018 NEWS: VMware Discusses How Royal Caribbean Uses VMware AirWatch to Manage Mobile Devices Used by Employees Both on Ships and Shoreside

 

 

 

Today at the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) annual show, VMware, Inc., a provider of cloud infrastructure and business mobility, highlighted several customers who have deployed VMware technology to modernize data centers, integrate public cloud solutions, empower the digital workspace and transform networking and security. The company highlighted numerous case studies, one of which was its work with Royal Caribbean Cruises.

Empowering the Digital Workspace to Enhance Customer Engagement

Today’s consumers want convenient, frictionless experiences – anytime, everywhere. At the same time, retail and consumer brands need to monitor and collect data and offer solutions that enable customers to make smarter buying decisions, in real-time as responses to behaviors. Mware’s digital workspace solutions help customers improve app and infrastructure delivery to mobile endpoints, which can help improve customer engagement and enhance experiences with mobile devices.

Royal Caribbean, a global cruise line, utilizes VMware AirWatch to manage mobile devices used by employees both on ships and shoreside. In addition to traditional device management, Royal Caribbean’s IT team uses AirWatch to deploy applications over-the-air to employee devices – regardless of where they are in the world. 

“In order to provide the best experience to our on-board customers, our crew members require seamless, secure access to certain apps,” explained Jorge De La Cruz, Apple Architect, Information Technology, Royal Caribbean International. “With AirWatch, we can deploy apps based on an employee’s department, job title or location so they have access to the exact tools they need, whenever and wherever they need them.”

VMware also discussed how retailers are using its technology to embrace a multi-cloud strategy to improve the customer experience as well as to transform networking and security. For instance, DFS – a furniture producer in the United Kingdom – found that more than 50% of its website traffic came through a mobile device. Thus it wanted to have the infrastructure in place to help increase web site uptime and improve the customer experience. In addition, DFS needed a solution that could flex during times of high customer demand – such as their ‘Guaranteed by Christmas’ ordering period and Boxing Day – rather than having to run an environment at full capacity year-round. DFS moved to a scalable, cloud-first infrastructure through Rackspace Private Cloud powered by VMware. With this VMware Cloud Verified solution, the retailer said it can handle spikes in online traffic year-round by expanding its existing infrastructure when necessary, taking advantage of a multi-cloud approach from VMware.

In December 2017, VMware acquired VeloCloud, a provider of Cloud-Delivered SD-WAN. This solution helps retail enterprises deploy branch networks that are agile, flexible, scalable and secure. Retailers can also cross boundaries between digital and brick and mortar retail environments to deliver a complete, secure and high-quality customer experience. VeloCloud SD-WAN can help customers in their efforts to achieve PCI Certification, including Attestation of Compliance (AoC), which helps retail customers accelerate their PCI audit process. Centralized visibility and management via VeloCloud Orchestrator can help retailers centralize implementation of PCI-compliant architectures across retail locations globally.

Maintaining network-wide connectivity with continuous uptime to support in-store and online transactions is a high priority for Brooks Brothers, the United States’ oldest clothing retailer. When it came time to update its network to support future growth, the organization said it turned to VeloCloud SD-WAN.

‘With VeloCloud SD-WAN, we’re now able to extend the Brooks Brothers footprint to all geographies and allow all sites to have the same seamless network access regardless of location,” said Manny Stergakis, technical architect, Brooks Brothers. “VeloCloud Cloud-Delivered SD-WAN has enabled modernization of our global retail network with migration and secure, reliable access to cloud applications, simplified deployments and management of our WAN, and reduced cost of operations, to deliver our high quality, high end customers a world class shopping experience.”

To learn more about how VMware is helping retailers modernize and mobilize IT, visit the VMware booth (#3807) at NRF.