Family-Owned New England Hardware Store Builds a Solid Foundation with Comcast Business SD-WAN Solution

The hardware and home center will boost network availability and customer payment security by modernizing with next-generation network capabilities

PHILADELPHIA – February 21, 2020 –
Comcast Business today announced that a large family-owned hardware store and home center located in Boston has selected its software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) solution, powered by the next-generation ActiveCore SDN platform, to enhance network availability and customer payment security for its retail locations.

The hardware and home center, which has been in business for decades, previously relied on legacy T1 network infrastructure — but when the contract with the provider came up for renewal, the organization realized the older technology was not yielding the expected return on investment, especially for the price they were paying.

The company decided to move to a newer network – fiber – and deployed Comcast Business Ethernet in its two larger offices, and Comcast broadband internet at its smaller retailer locations, retaining the T1 as a backup layer.

After three successful years with Comcast Business, the hardware store decided to move to an even more modern environment to get the high availability it needed – a critical component of any retail store that takes credit card payments, which requires constant network uptime to process. The company began exploring SD-WAN, with the stipulation that it must be able to layer on top of its preferred voice solution, which allowed the company to collect the specific metrics and analytics it needed.

After Comcast Business demonstrated that its SD-WAN solution could be overlaid on top of the existing Comcast fiber and broadband, and that the store could retain its voice solution, the hardware business retired its T1 backup completely, and selected Comcast Business SD-WAN, with 4G LTE as a backup. Comcast Business also updated both of the business’s Ethernet Dedicated Internet circuits as part of the SD-WAN overlay.

One of the most attractive features of the Comcast SD-WAN to the retailer was the PCI compliance, which ensures customer payment data is kept secure. Another was the auto-failover feature, which means that the locations automatically connect to the 4G LTE backup if there is ever an issue with the Comcast network – no need for an IT staff member to physically go to the site to connect it to the other network.

For more information, please visit: https://business.comcast.com/

About Comcast Business
 
Comcast Business offers Ethernet, Internet, Wi-Fi, Voice, TV and Managed Enterprise Solutions to help organizations of all sizes transform their business. Powered by an advanced network, and backed by 24/7 customer support, Comcast Business is one of the largest contributors to the growth of Comcast Cable. Comcast Business is the nation’s largest cable provider to small and mid-size businesses and has emerged as a force in the Enterprise market; recognized over the last two years by leading industry associations as one of the fastest growing providers of Ethernet services.
For more information, call 866-429-3085. Follow on Twitter @ComcastBusiness and on other social media networks at http://business.comcast.com/social.

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Media Contacts:
Matt Helmke, Comcast Business
215.286.8666
matt_helmke@comcast.com