Credit: Dreamstime
Online retail and auction company Grays has switched on Citrix SD-WAN following an installation by Australian IT service provider Precision IT.
With the help of Precision IT, Grays has turned off its legacy Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) in favour of a more “agile” SD-WAN solution.
The solution is used in conjunction with AWS Transit Gateway, which Citrix claims it ensures seamless connectivity across all of Grays’ 17 warehouses.
Grays had moved to the Amazon Web Services' (AWS) cloud just before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
On advice from Precision IT, the Grays team made the decision to put the SD-WAN headend in AWS' Sydney region to manage and connect all the sites.
During the seven-month transformation, Grays deployed the new connectivity into each site in parallel with the existing MPLS network. Precision IT then deployed SD-WAN at each site.
Once the new network was in place, Precision IT transferred the sites onto Citrix SD-WAN and connected them to AWS. The entire IT infrastructure, the back of house business systems and the front-end e-commerce system on AWS, was all connected via Citrix SD-WAN.
According to the vendor, Grays is now able to power video link-ups that its employees can use to show customers merchandise including cars, auto parts and other equipment when customers are unable to attend in-person auction viewings.
“To deliver the simple, secure and reliable experience that buyers and sellers expect, we must be able to bring new sites on board fast and ensure they stay connected at all times,” said Ayaz Ahmed, head of technology at Grays.
“We have the ability to scale up and down, which helps us move much more quickly - we can now spin up a site in a day.”
“Without Citrix SD-WAN, I'd probably be under a lot more pressure to resolve customer buying issues,” he added. “It has definitely set us up for success.”
With offices in Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast, Precision IT specialises in cloud, managed and consulting services spanning vendors including the likes of Microsoft, Veeam and VMware, among others.
