Using SUSE Linux Enterprise to "Focus In" on Retail Optical Sales Patrick Mullin Scott Steele Senior Technical Specialist SUSE Consulting pmullin@suse.com Point of Sale Manager National Vision, Inc. scott.steele@nationalvision.com
Agenda 2 Introduction to National Vision Past National Vision Retail Environments Present National Vision Retail Environment Future National Vision Retail Environment SUSE Consulting
Introduction to National Vision
National Vision Introduction 4 National Vision, Inc. (NVI) is the fourth largest optical retailer in the United States Operates over 750 retail locations in US Employs over 6,000 employees
Past National Vision Retail Environments
National Vision Past Prior to 2009, a typical store consisted of: A single SCO OpenServer 5.1 6 InterBase Database In-house Application About 12-15 users working on 5-7 Point of Sale (POS) workstations Generic PC hardware from various vendors (Lenovo, HP, Dell) Windows XP with Terminal Emulation Software Completely unmanaged
National Vision Past Pain Points Server Performance Server Downtime 158 Store Servers crashed in one year (~3 per week) Each down server has to be shipped to Datacenter, reimaged and shipped back to store (~48-72 hours total return time per server) Database Corruption 7 Legacy operating system technology unable to take advantage of current hardware Legacy database engine (Interbase)
National Vision Past SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service Implementation In 2009, NVI ported their in-store application to SUSE and replaced database with MySQL Teamed up with SUSE Consulting to deploy SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service 10 SP1 Central Administration and Build Server HA Branch Servers in Store on generic workstation hardware ZENworks Linux Management to manage servers SLEPOS workstations managed via custom scripts Nagios to monitor * See Session CAS1381 Build with SUSE Studio, Deploy with SUSE Linux Enterprise Point Of Service and Manage with SUSE Manager 8
National Vision Past SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service Benefits 9 Centralized and consistent POS image build process to support store POS devices Keep in-store systems updated and running seamlessly Eliminate performance issues on existing POS systems Ease the deployment of updates to the POS environment Improve end user experience
National Vision Past SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service 10
SUSE Success 11 NVI decided to migrate from Windows devices because SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service was: Faster to build and deploy Faster to re-image POS devices in-store Easier to maintain on day to day basis Has better licensing and support options More stable More secure
Present National Vision Retail Environment
National Vision Current 13 In 2012, NVI replaced their in-store POS application with a centralized, Windows based application NVI wanted to keep the features of SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service, but: In-store servers were no longer required for POS application NVI wanted to reduce server management POS workstations were more desktop than registers NVI needed a more robust POS device management platform Application install/uninstall and status reporting Inventory Patch management Imaging Function with limited bandwidth
National Vision Current In 2013, NVI migrated existing SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service 10 SP1 infrastructure to a serverless environment consisting of: 14 SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP2 rdesktop connection to POS Application LibreOffice Mozilla Firefox ZENworks Configuration Management 11 SP2
National Vision Current 15 Key business drivers for migration Standardize POS platform management Reduce store hardware footprint Simplify workstation management Upgrade to latest supported Linux platform Mozilla Firefox-17.x to support internal Portal Kernel drivers Video/CPU Security patches
National Vision Current 16
National Vision Current NVI's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 17
Total Store Device Management Powered by Novell ZENworks 18 Automated store device life cycle management: OS deployment Configuration management Software distribution Remote management Power management Leveraging: Location awareness with bandwidth control retail aware Platform freedom of choice Internet-friendly from console to managed device
Web Based Management of All POS Devices 19
ZENworks Linux Package Management 20
ZENworks Linux Patch Management 21
ZENworks Configuration Management 22 Linux Desktop Imaging
ZENworks Linux Inventory Reports 23
Future National Vision Retail Environment
Future 25 In the near future, NVI will replace existing store rdesktop RDP sessions to POS application with a Citrix XenApp Solution Benefits of Citrix ICA client on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Provide best user experience to POS Application Support low bandwidth and high latency WAN connections Controlling and encrypting access to data and applications Simplifying and automating the process of delivering or updating applications Using Citrix integrated tools and infrastructure to control, measure and monitor performance Better POS application Business Continuity
Future POS Environment 26
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