Customer Success Story
Managed IT Service Provider Delivers Simplified Cloud-Managed Networking
Retailers can’t afford downtime; it prevents purchases and disappoints shoppers. To overcome network reliability issues, a U.S. retailer turned to Auxiom, a managed IT service provider, and Juniper to improve uptime and reduce complexity. Auxiom’s solution includes Juniper Sky Enterprise for intuitive network management.
Improved
reliability with consistent networking
Ensured
consistent network configuration with cloud-based management
Centralized
network visibility between trusted partners Juniper and Auxiom
Network reliability and performance issues were impacting the shopper experience and store operations at this Midwestern retailer, interrupting purchases and leaving customers frustrated. Technicians often had to travel to the store to troubleshoot and resolve network issues. “IT spent a lot of time trying to trace down issues,” says Matt Opificius, professional services manager at Auxiom, a managed IT services provider in Rochester, MI.
“There’s a high need for enterprise-class networking among midsize customers, but they need easily scalable solutions,” Opificius says.
Auxiom deployed Juniper Sky Enterprise for the retailer, providing simple, intuitive cloud-based management and enterprise-grade networking and security at 30 locations. Juniper Sky Enterprise runs as a multitenant, secure, and reliable managed service. At the stores and headquarters, Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches are centrally provisioned and managed through Juniper Sky Enterprise.
Auxiom partnered with Juniper Networks because of Juniper’s focus on engineering simplicity. “Juniper Sky Enterprise is aligned with Auxiom’s efforts to create gold-standard networks for our clients,” says Opificius. “We chose Juniper Sky Enterprise to reduce setup complexity and easily scale the solution. The Juniper Networks Junos operating system, which runs on Juniper switches, is best-in-class.”
With a secure, enterprise-class network that’s simple to manage from anywhere, the retailer can ensure a great in-store experience for shoppers, and sales transactions ring up securely and without delay. Critical back-office applications such as employee time tracking and inventory also run flawlessly.
Simplifying the network with Juniper has resulted in higher network availability. Consistent configuration has been key to the improved reliability. Before, devices at the various retail locations were configured differently, resulting in reliability gaps. “The network is configured consistently across all 30 sites,” Opificius says. “We can make configuration changes across multiple locations in minutes, rather than having to touch every switch or use a third-party product,” he says. “Juniper Sky Enterprise does it out of the box.”
Juniper Sky Enterprise simplifies policy enforcement and regulatory compliance. “Now it’s much easier to see how the network is segmented to maintain PCI compliance.” “It’s very easy to troubleshoot a problem in Juniper Sky Enterprise,” Opificius says. “Monitoring enables us to identify potential issues before they become problems.”
Auxiom sees strong demand for cloud managed networking among its manufacturing, education, and other customers in the Detroit area.
The Products
Juniper Sky Enterprise
Juniper Sky Enterprise provides easy cloud-based management to reduce costs and simplify enterprise networks deploying Juniper switching and security products.
The EX Series Ethernet Switches are cloud-ready, high-performance access and aggregation/core layer switches designed for enterprise branch, campus, and data center networks. Wired access networks don’t have to be complex—you can reduce risk and cost without compromising performance, quality, and innovation.
Published July 2019