Success story
Large-scale MD distribution: resilient, optimized and secure.
Deda Cloud has built a new connectivity infrastructure for the resilient, optimized and secure enterprise.
Among the most important players in Italian large-scale retail and now also in e-commerce, MD is the benchmark brand of good grocery shopping.
Distributed throughout the territory with the center of its distribution network in two macro-areas, north and south Italy, it is committed every day to guarantee its services and the continuous supply of products with sustainable and highly innovative technological solutions.
Turnover 2020
2.9 bn
Employees
~8.000
Points of sale
800
Evolution
Startup of ManS services for IT infrastructure management and expansion of IT infrastructure.
CeDi networking development, startup of SAP project in our Data Centers and expansion of cyber security services.
New IaaS services and startup Business and Consumer WiFi connectivity.
Switch from in-housing logic to an as a Service model in Multicloud – SD Wan project for CeDi starts.
SCENARIO
The company became a reality that needed high reliability and business continuity. MD was founded in 1994 as MD Discount from the intuition of founder Patrizio Podini , who invested in the southern Italian regions by focusing on the large-scale retail market and meeting the evolving needs of consumers with a quality and always affordable offer.
Podini’s visionary mentality fostered the growth of the brand throughout the country, becoming a reality that boasts 820 stores, 8 Ce Di and the 1st automated CeDi in the Italian GDO for loading and preparing goods.
MD’s success is encapsulated in its mission “Thinking big, for the good of all.”
Podini’s visionary mentality fostered the growth of the brand throughout the country, becoming a reality that boasts 820 stores, 8 Ce Di and the 1st automated CeDi in the Italian GDO for loading and preparing goods.
MD’s success is encapsulated in its mission “Thinking big, for the good of all.”
- Meeting the needs of every customer;
- High standards of quality and corporate security;
- A diverse offering that favors Italian suppliers;
- The investment in one’s human assets;
- Environmental concern and innovative approach.
Behind such a diverse assortment, the presence of consistently fresh and quality products, and the great business success lies a state-of-the-art, sustainable and technologically advanced logistics system .
The logistics system for a company like MD is the beating heart of a reality that expands year after year covering new geographical areas and announcing new openings.
MD’s logistics jewel is currently capable of handling hundreds of millions of parcels per year through 8 warehouses distributed throughout the country that must ensure the continuous supply of all stores.
MD’s logistics jewel is currently capable of handling hundreds of millions of parcels per year through 8 warehouses distributed throughout the country that must ensure the continuous supply of all stores.
MD’s connectivity needs therefore developed quickly, and in a short time the company became one that needed high reliability and business continuity while at the same time wishing to bridge the difficulties given by the location of CeDi in areas not accessible by a wide variety of telecommunications.
The goal of the project was to build a new connectivity infrastructure for the company that was resilient, optimized, and secure.
Specifically, the infrastructure was to redecorate the following characteristics:
The goal of the project was to build a new connectivity infrastructure for the company that was resilient, optimized, and secure.
Specifically, the infrastructure was to redecorate the following characteristics:
- Possibility of using lines provided by different operators with different technologies;
- Continuous availability by zeroing out connectivity disruptions;
- Optimizing bandwidth availability to applications and services delivered by Deda Cloud servers;
- Optimizing traffic between locations and datacenters by prioritizing and targeting traffic based on business criticality.
MD has always invested intechnological innovation, witness the historical relationship with Dedagroup, a group of which Deda Cloud is a reference point for Cloud and Cybersecurity topics, which has been following its development for 10 years.
A long-lasting relationship that sees two important realities in their sectors, accompanying each other in their market growth and achieving remarkable results.
Also in this new need MD decided to rely on Deda Cloud, the experience and expertise of its people to identify the ad hoc solution for their needs, which would help them meet their quality and performance standards, allowing the company to reach, without disruption, more and more areas of the Italian territory.
A long-lasting relationship that sees two important realities in their sectors, accompanying each other in their market growth and achieving remarkable results.
Also in this new need MD decided to rely on Deda Cloud, the experience and expertise of its people to identify the ad hoc solution for their needs, which would help them meet their quality and performance standards, allowing the company to reach, without disruption, more and more areas of the Italian territory.
Proposal and solution
Deda Cloud has adopted an innovative technology from partner VMWare: SD-WAN – Velocloud.
The proposed solution has granted MD resilient connectivity by combining state-of-the-art technology with Deda Cloud’s consultative service that provides expertise, experience and a listening-oriented approach. The technology enables the creation of hybrid networks, which integrate multiple access technologies and enable real-time availability of the first usable connection, based on throughput or other programmable criteria, and optimizing total bandwidth-related costs. SD-WAN enables effective increases in network capacity and performance and improves the performance and reliability of critical applications such as desktop virtualization, video conferencing, remote use of CRM, and other business-critical applications. At the same time, it can merge multiple geographic links and manage networks in a much more flexible and efficient way than traditional technologies (e.g., VPN or MPLS), without depending on the infrastructure of a single operator and the type and/or number of connections in each location.
In the planning phase, MD defined connection routing policies, identifying the activities that were most critical to the business and setting traffic priorities. This activity causes SD-WAN to be able to direct traffic to other endpoints located at different points in the network, with centralized control, allowing network administrators to configure traffic based on business needs and company security policies. The client worked closely with our technicians, supporting and planning together with Deda Cloud all activities at individual sites to ensure an invisible transition to the new SDWAN connectivity, thus without impactful consequences on their business. Another decisive element in the realization of the project was the collaboration with the company IFInet, specializing in connectivity and cybersecurity and now an integral part of Deda Cloud, which followed the project closely by carrying out a risk and criticality analysis together with Deda Cloud, studying the best connectivity sets to mitigate the risk and actively working in the installations.
The technology choice was driven by the quality of the solution proposed by Vmware partner – velocloud. A solution tailored to the customer’s needs and in line with the quality and performance standards that MD wanted to meet to keep its brand competitive in the market. In addition, the client’s historical knowledge allowed Deda Cloud to fully understand the client’s needs, assess the best solutions, and build together the strategic activities to be followed to achieve their goals. Two were the winning elements:
- The synergy of the historical relationship Deda Cloud & MD;
- The quality of the proposed solution.
The logistics facility is the lifeblood of our business reality.
Thanks to Deda Cloud and the expertise of its technicians, today we can ensure our customers continuous service without interruption.
IT Director - MD S.p.A.
Achievements
The service provides the customer with cost and service flexibility on different CeDi. Bringing together expertise and experience between two leaders in their field, MD and Deda Cloud, allowed them to ground an important project for a company like MD with an always-on business. Velocloud’s SD-WAN is thetechnology enabler that can bridge a technical gap for the customer and solve a critical difficulty for its business.
The technology enabled the customer to reduce provider constraints, be faster, move elastically according to business needs, perform tasks in parallel, and avoid disruptions.
SD-WAN is not only a technology enabler but becomes a real business enabler.
At the same time, the management complexity generated by connectivity alternatives is mitigated by the same technology combined with the Deda Cloud action, which provides an overview of network operation.
The service provides the customer with cost and service flexibility on the different CeDi: the customer has access to the control map, but thanks to the activity of Deda Cloud and the know-how of our technical experts, it is possible to understand what is happening, acting in a timely manner with quality control of the connection.
The technology enabled the customer to reduce provider constraints, be faster, move elastically according to business needs, perform tasks in parallel, and avoid disruptions.
SD-WAN is not only a technology enabler but becomes a real business enabler.
At the same time, the management complexity generated by connectivity alternatives is mitigated by the same technology combined with the Deda Cloud action, which provides an overview of network operation.
The service provides the customer with cost and service flexibility on the different CeDi: the customer has access to the control map, but thanks to the activity of Deda Cloud and the know-how of our technical experts, it is possible to understand what is happening, acting in a timely manner with quality control of the connection.
Deda Cloud also provides traffic analysis, which is very significant for connectivity operation and a starting point for future optimization considerations by delivering the solution as a Service.
Now MD has achieved its goals:
Now MD has achieved its goals:
- Ensure high reliability and business continuity through multiple connectivity;
- Optimize traffic with faster data transmission and priority policy setting;
- Achieve resilient connectivity in line with critical business activities.
The quality of the proposed solution combined with the availability, expertise and listening approach of the technicians allowed Deda Cloud to follow MD through each project step, studying the possible needs, understanding the critical issues, analyzing them and defining together with the client a solution in line with his business.
In addition, Deda Cloud ensured a zero-day installed solution: a complex project completed without creating disruptions and without impacting business operations.
In addition, Deda Cloud ensured a zero-day installed solution: a complex project completed without creating disruptions and without impacting business operations.
Today MD can count on reliable, always on, unconstrained connectivity, optimized and in line with its business criticalities, guaranteeing its customers an always on service and an assured supply by completely zeroing the possibility of disruptions given by the network.
MD’s visionary approach and desire to innovate by guaranteeing an increasingly competitive and efficient service per customer has allowed Deda Cloud to approach an ever-growing reality ready to push itself higher and higher.
The historic partnership between MD and Deda Cloud is the result of the expertise, trust and transparency demonstrated by the companies in their collaboration over the years.
Deda Cloud has had the opportunity to develop important projects for MD’s business and to accompany it year after year toward new market demands, transforming both into the solid and innovative realities they are today.
MD’s visionary approach and desire to innovate by guaranteeing an increasingly competitive and efficient service per customer has allowed Deda Cloud to approach an ever-growing reality ready to push itself higher and higher.
The historic partnership between MD and Deda Cloud is the result of the expertise, trust and transparency demonstrated by the companies in their collaboration over the years.
Deda Cloud has had the opportunity to develop important projects for MD’s business and to accompany it year after year toward new market demands, transforming both into the solid and innovative realities they are today.
