Retail Industry - Wireless project case study

About the company

This American chain of stores is widely known for its fresh produce, providing fresh groceries and products for over 42 states and Washington, D.C. Having originated in the greater Los Angeles area, this company has offices in both the East and West Coast; now boasts over 503 stores nationwide; and has over 10,000 total administrative and non-administrative employees. Most locations are sizable, averaging 10,000 to 15,000 square feet, and a typical store may carry over 50,000 items on average. This chain’s products include organic foods, vegetarian foods, imported foods, staples, gourmet produce, hygiene products, vitamins, household cleaners, pet items, and domestic and imported wine and beer. Consumer Reports ranked this chain as the second-best supermarket chain in the United States in 2009 and the first-best chain in 2014. MSN Money also ranked this chain as the second best in customer service among all of the nation’s retail and grocery outlets.

CHALLENGES

This chain’s main pain point was an increase in the signal strength and security of its Aruba wireless environment for its warehouse. While Aruba had already completed a previous wireless design, bill of materials, and architecture, the client sought expertise regarding the planning, implementation, configuration, and validation of the Aruba Wireless solution in their Stockton, California location.

With regards to their Aruba solution, they needed to engineering to validate and implement Aruba’s design: hardware placement and connectivity; wireless security; different components being designed an IP; wireless LAN configuration including the security models, SSID naming schemes, and security mechanisms applied to each level of access; manager console configuration and design; and management including floor plans. In terms of the implementation, their wireless environment needed a team to configure their access points (APs) and AirWave Management Platform (AMP).

ASsessment and solution

With the chain looking to set up their Aruba Wireless solution, but with no specialty Aruba engineers, the organization looked to PM2NET’s engineering and project management experts to assist with the configuration, design, implementation, and validation of their desired Aruba Wireless solution at their Stockton location. PM2NET based its planning and implementation off of Aruba’s previously completed design and architecture. Before implementation, the organization and PM2NET sat down to discuss project expectations and the client’s requirements with regard to their Aruba wireless.

PM2NET reviewed and validated hardware placement and connectivity; wireless security including a Pre-Shared Key; naming conventions for the different components; identifying the IP addresses to be assigned for each component; defining VLAN and access list requirements; port configuration; reviewing the role and security model required for the WLAN; defining WLAN SSID naming; security mechanisms that were applied to each level of access; reviewing MC configuration and design, including the server configuration and defining the VMware ESX server to support the requirements of the MC; and reviewing a floor plan suitable for Aruba’s AMP. With the chain looking to set up their Aruba Wireless solution, but with no specialty Aruba engineers, the organization looked to PM2NET’s engineering and project management experts to assist with the configuration, design, implementation, and validation of their desired Aruba Wireless solution at their Stockton location. PM2NET based its planning and implementation on Aruba’s previously completed design and architecture. Before implementation, the organization and PM2NET sat down to discuss project expectations and the client’s requirements with regard to their Aruba wireless.

PM2NET reviewed and validated hardware placement and connectivity; wireless security including a Pre-Shared Key; naming conventions for the different components; identifying the IP addresses to be assigned for each component; defining VLAN and access list requirements; port configuration; reviewing the role and security model required for the WLAN; defining WLAN SSID naming; security mechanisms that were applied to each level of access; reviewing MC configuration and design, including the server configuration and defining the VMware ESX server to support the requirements of the MC; and reviewing a floor plan suitable for Aruba’s AMP.

advantages

This organization lacked the capabilities to assess, design, configure, and implement this large-scale Aruba Wireless project for one of their Californian locations. By recruiting PM2NET as part of the effort, PM2NET was able to adapt to the design previously produced by Aruba and configure and implement their wireless requirements.

Apart from implementing this large-scale project, PM2NET reviewed the requirements with the client in order to understand the customer’s expectations and desired wireless criteria. Further, PM2NET was able to validate their coverage, ensuring that the project was carried out successfully. By having one of PM2NET’s senior engineers available following project completion and coverage validation, the customer was rest assured that their Aruba coverage was incorporated into their environment successfully, along with the security requirements of their project.