Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Fortinet surveyed retailers on current business changes, challenges and investment plans including telework, new technologies and integrations, compliance, the cybersecurity skills shortage, cloud security and SD-WAN.
Overall, the research shows that retailers are adding new services and technologies to adapt to the new ways employees must work and consumers are shopping – 88 percent added or expanded telework and 43 percent added or expanded eCommerce. In addition, 42 percent added the ability to perform contactless transactions.
Retailers have had to fast-track plans to integrate web and mobile applications, order delivery solutions and other services with their point-of-sale networks.
Forty-four percent of respondents indicated staffing was one of their biggest security challenges during Covid-19, but retail organizations are using a wide range of approaches to address the cybersecurity skills shortage.
To manage multiple locations with limited IT staff, retailers must operate with a high level of automation and save time with zero-touch deployment.
The survey also showed retailers are running into a number of cloud-management challenges — complexity of administration, 43 percent; followed by cost, 41 percent; with secure access and compliance tied for third, 40 percent.
Retailers also need fast and scalable connectivity to enable seamless transactions to support sales, inventory, purchasing and other activities. Replacing traditional connections with SD-WAN offers a more flexible approach to connectivity with faster performance and a lower total cost of ownership, increasing efficiency, and bolstering the customer experience.
The challenge is that not every SD-WAN offering includes security integrated into the solution. A secure SD-WAN is necessary to efficiently and effectively mitigate risk, provide business continuity and allow for greatest ROI.