NCR Deploys Global Retail Security
Challenge
With its software, hardware, and portfolio of managed services, NCR is an industry-leading global technology company that secures nearly 550 million transactions daily across retail and hospitality industries. Managing secure technology to safeguard the billions of point of sale (POS) transactions and the systems connected to them is a critical part of NCR’s business model. With business operations for tens of thousands of diverse customers largely depending on the internal systems they support, NCR is focused on implementing enterprise-grade and easy-to-use security solutions.
NCR prioritizes the ease of accessibility for its security services to all its customers. Dustin McCreight, solution manager at NCR, explained “One of the things that’s very important for us is to be able to deliver enterprise-grade security to our customers who may not have the resources to have a full-blown IT staff. So, from a technology and price standpoint, it made a lot of sense for us to go with WatchGuard.”
Solution
NCR chose WatchGuard as a trusted partner to help them deliver secure and easy-to-deploy solutions to their customers. With WatchGuard, NCR provides customized hardware solutions to fit their growing customer needs.
NCR selected WatchGuard T10, T35 and T50 Firebox appliances installed through RapidDeploy, a Cloud-based deployment solution, allowing NCR to install these appliances at any location in less than an hour. RapidDeploy has drastically decreased NCR’s deployment time explained Dustin, “Previously, we were averaging close to three hours per install and now we are well under thirty minutes on average per install.” Managing multiple locations requires streamlining set-up processes, as Dustin laid out, “With the WatchGuard platform, we were able to set up the device, without ever having physically touched it. We usually build a configuration, send it to the Cloud, send the device to the end user and they simply connect it to the Internet and pull down the configuration.”
NCR also provides their customers with unprecedented secure Wi-Fi connectivity, using AP200 access points. Of course, WatchGuard Wi-Fi access points also provide robust performance at all times, including peak usage.
Appliances and secure Wi-Fi deliver actionable results through intuitive user interfaces, which allow NCR staff to monitor its customers’ security. WatchGuard Dimension allows NCR staff to identify key network security threats, issues and trends collected from large amounts of data and distilled into easy-to-analyze charts and tables. “Dimension is a wonderful tool. Security in and of itself doesn’t always excite people so being able to visually show them what’s happening, like the threats we were able to prevent, is huge,” said Dustin.
Results
As NCR’s business continues to grow, covering half a billion transactions every day, so does the need to provide security solutions for its customers. As a result of deploying WatchGuard solutions, NCR can provide secure Wi-Fi and high-performing firewall appliances to their customers around the world. WatchGuard Dimension makes it easy and affordable for NCR’s staff and its customers to monitor and detect threats before they happen. “There is a huge movement towards mobile POS platforms,” concluded Dustin. “Being able to deliver a secured reliable wireless platform for those POS devices to operate is huge for us.” Regardless of the growing number of NCR’s customers in various industries, Dustin is confident that WatchGuard is the right partner to protect their investment and their environment.