HPE promises retailers more reliable in-store experiences – even when the network is down

When you think of retail infrastructure, it’s highly unlikely that you think of HPE. Surely its tech is for enterprises, campuses and factories? Not to mention creating the world’s fastest supercomputer. But the company is also a familiar sight at NRF: Retail’s Big Show, announcing its “Edge-to-Cloud” strategy last year and this year promising retailers “faster insight, smarter operations, and more reliable in-store experiences”.

This is its first year at the show since its acquisition of Juniper Networks in July 2025. With that in mind, it’s offering retailers solutions that combine HPE Aruba Networking CX switching and Mist AIOps, together with HPE Nonstop Compute solutions.

โ€œIn modern retail, a single lost transaction is a lost customer or a damaged reputation,” said Sujai Hajela, EVP & GM, Campus & Branch, HPE.

“HPE is raising the bar for retail by combining resilient edge connectivity, self-drivingย AI-nativeย operations, andย fault-tolerantย compute to give retailers the insight, automation and assurance they need to meet existing and future shopper demands.”

He added: โ€œThis unified foundation combines key HPE solutions to help retailers deliver continuous operations and consistent performance at scale, building trust in the next era of retail, where every transaction counts and every experience matters.โ€

HPE Marvis Ops for retail
HPE Marvis Ops for retail (image: HPE)

Greater business insight, greater security

By using the Marvis virtual agent, HPE believes that retailers can “move from reactive troubleshooting to proactive decision-making” on their networks. This is one of the reasons it believes that customer experiences will be improved.

HPE also has its eye on the thousands of edge devices sitting in retail environments. Think point-of-sale terminals, digital signage, cameras and sensors. New 8-port models in its HPE Aruba Networking CX 6000 Switch Series are here to help, and on show at NRF.

HPE Aruba Networking CX 6000 Switch Series
HPE Aruba Networking CX 6000 Switch Series (image: HPE)

Then we come to HPE Nonstop Compute, which “delivers continuous,ย fault-tolerantย solutions for backend payment processing, inventory management, and otherย mission-criticalย applications” according to HPE.

Even during network outages, it claims the platform will keep applications running.

If all this sounds like technology your retail business could take advantage of, the good news is that both the HPE Nonstop Compute solutions and the HPE Aruba Networking CX 6000 Switch Series are now available.

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Tim Danton

Tim has worked in IT publishing since the days when all PCs were beige, and is editor-in-chief of the UK's PC Pro magazine. He has been writing about hardware for TechFinitive since 2023.