Woolworths Group is relocating some of its core applications to run at the network edge to reduce the impact of system outages, particularly on replenishment.
The supermarket giant said it identified the need to move applications closer to its network edge after it executed a strategic arrangement with Dell Technologies to stitch its private and public clouds together to form a group hosting service.
The contract, signed off in 2020, saw Dell Technologies take control of managing and supplying hardware for the retailer’s two Sydney data centres and then deliver compute back to the Woolworths Group as a private cloud on a utility consumption basis.
Woolworths general manager of services, operations and infrastructure Dave Page told attendees at a Dell customer event in Sydney that presently its applications either run in public cloud or virtual private cloud using Microsoft Azure VMware Solution (AVS).
However, Page said the retailer recently decided it needed to “reposition” some critical workloads to the edge of its network and had started to do so.
Specifically, the retailer is concerned that a system failure in the cloud or a connectivity problem creates a “blast radius” that can take out critical capabilities that stores rely on, such as for restocking.
“When we talk about blast radius, it’s either the availability of the system or the connectivity from the end site to the application. When it goes down – that connectivity that is flowing through our core data centre or into cloud – we’re losing 50 percent of replenishment capability, which then impacts the ability to get products on the shelf … and being critical infrastructure that is not appropriate,” Page said.
“We’re repositioning those workloads to run at the edge where, if there was a problem with the core network or a problem with the cloud, which I think you’ll realise happens, those workloads keep going and we’re able to continue that business.”
It’s not clear how the company defines the edge of its network and whether that means it will need to establish compute facilities on-premises at its distribution centres or in all of its retail stores.
iTnews contacted Woolworths Group for clarification, but it declined to provide any details about its plans for moving the workloads closer to stores.
“We don’t have anything else to add so won’t be commenting further,” a spokesperson for the company said.
Page told the Dell event that Woolworths’ decision-making around where to host applications was initially driven by cost optimisation.
However, he said, all of the elements of that cost “wasn’t really well understood”.
“Initially the driver was based on cost, but that evolved to … looking at data proximity, also the cost, the technical fit, and now the blast radius.
“We look at all those aspects when deciding where to place a workload,” he said.
