Who's Minding the Connected Store?

In effect, retailers must now pay as much attention to the network architectures underpinning their stores as to the concrete structures that house them. We've moved beyond just physical store management. The future of retail is all about connecting the physical world with the virtual one.

Retailers as Network Operators
Retail IT operations include data center management, connectivity to and from store locations, and wireless network management within stores. If a problem occurs across any of these areas, the consequences range from mild inconvenience to a potentially major loss of revenue. Imagine the impact of downtime in a POS system during the holiday shopping season. An hour without network access could result in tens of thousands of dollars in lost sales. And the more the rate of activity on the system rises, the more vulnerable it is to a failure event.