WAN optimisation, application failover, and a structured intra-rack cabling system across the data centre serving 560 stores.
Client
Trader Joe's
Engagement
Advance Engineering
Timeline
4 months
Scope
WAN and Data Centre
Provenance: this engagement was delivered under PM2net, prior to the founding of Megsolve. It was led by Esram Gibran Khan, now Managing Partner at Megsolve, and is presented here as documented delivery experience rather than as a Megsolve client engagement.
30%Latency reduction
25%Data transfer efficiency
370Cables installed
The opportunity
01 · CONTEXT
Trader Joe's operates 560 grocery locations nationwide from headquarters in Monrovia, California. As the estate grew, the network carrying its critical business operations had not kept pace.
Three problems compounded each other: persistent latency across the wide area network, unreliable application failover, and the absence of any structured cabling framework inside the data centre. Equipment from Cisco, HPE, Palo Alto, F5, Perle, and Cato shared racks with no consistent standard, making every change slower and riskier than it needed to be.
The brief was to fix the immediate performance problems and leave behind an architecture that would not need revisiting in a year.
The solution
02 · DELIVERY
A five-phase program built on Riverbed and F5, sequenced so that each phase could be validated before the next began.
PH 01
LTM and GTM implementation
Two i2600 appliances deployed in High Availability mode for Local and Global Traffic Management
Cabling and network connectivity validated against customer requirements
Addressing and naming conventions agreed and applied
Both platforms licensed and provisioned
Local HA functionality tested end to end
PH 02
Integration into production GTM iQuery mesh
Global GTM network health validated before any change
LTM HA pair integrated into the existing GTM iQuery network
New GTMs incorporated into the iQuery topology
Local DNS resolution validated against the new GTMs
PH 03
High availability and disaster recovery testing
Local DNS validated against the global GTM network
LTM failover testing performed under load
DNS redundancy and disaster recovery scenarios exercised
PH 04
Riverbed Steelhead deployment
Pre-work information collected in collaboration with the customer
Riverbed interceptors and Steelhead appliances physically installed and configured
Cabling, connectivity, and disk health validated
Configuration changes applied against supplied settings
Network reachability verified with the customer's network, security, and application teams
PH 05
Customer verification and handover
All project components checked and confirmed complete by the customer
Post-completion configuration and design changes handled on a time and materials basis
The impact
03 · OUTCOME
Enhanced WAN performance
Network response times improved and latency reduced by 30%
Riverbed and F5 services delivered a 25% increase in data transfer efficiency
Structured intra-rack cabling
Cabling organised across eight racks spanning Cisco, HPE, Palo Alto, F5, Perle, and Cato equipment
370 cables installed and labelled to customer-specified standards
Increased network reliability
High availability and failover testing confirmed resilience under disruption
DNS redundancy and DR testing contributed to a 20% improvement in overall reliability
Customer satisfaction
Project met or exceeded expectations across every component
Delivered inside a four-month window, the program resolved the immediate performance issues and left Trader Joe's with a network architecture built to absorb growth rather than resist it.