At NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show, HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) Aruba Networking is showcasing its retail-ready networking portfolio and demonstrating how reliable and secure connectivity is a critical component of retail modernisation from the back office and warehouse, to the front of the store and curbside.
HPE is exhibiting its new solutions for quick, secure deployment in retail environments to improve performance for real-time applications and workloads at the edge. The expanded portfolio includes:
- New HPE Aruba Networking 100 Series Cellular Bridge for easy-to-deploy primary or backup WAN access to provide connectivity when fibre or broadband WAN circuits are unavailable or experience failure. The Cellular Bridge provides customers with better resiliency for mission critical services such as credit card processing and leveraging radio access rather than fibre access. It can also be used for quick deployment of new or temporary locations, like kiosks or pop-up locations, when delays or costs of cabling a broadband WAN connection are not justifiable.
- HPE Aruba Networking CX 8325H, a new store-friendly, half-width 18-port switch that fits into compact spaces, with lower power and cooling requirements, and connects with the HPE ProLiant DL145 Gen11 server for edge computing.
- HPE Aruba Networking 750 Series wireless access points to secure, process, and deliver IoT data in real-time to power AI retail applications.
- New HPE Aruba Networking Central AI Insights that optimise retail curbside operations by increasing performance of Wi-Fi networks when deployed outdoors and can also detect unusual IoT behaviour that indicates a potential security breach.
As retailers focus on customer experience that spans in-store and online transactions, it becomes more critical that passerby traffic does not interfere with customer transactions. HPE Aruba Networking Central AI Insights detects any negative impact on the customer experience and can automatically adjust transmit settings to remedy poor performance.
For the retail industry, IoT devices are often the most vulnerable point of entry for hackers. To protect against breaches and malware, HPE Aruba Networking access points are designed to provide a secure connectivity platform for the increase in IoT devices at the network edge, such as cameras, shelf labels, RFID labels, energy sensors and motion detectors. To protect against security compromises due to IoT devices, HPE Aruba Networking Central AI Insights is able to detect anomalies in IoT uploads and downloads which may be indicative of a breach.
Stuart Strickland, wireless chief technology officer, HPE Aruba Networking commented: “Retailers facing challenges in warehousing, inventory control, and omnichannel fulfilment need comprehensive and secure connectivity to enable digital modernization and enhance customer experiences. HPE’s networking solutions bring real-time IoT data processing and AI inferencing closer to the source of data generation to fuel omnichannel shopping strategies that increase revenue.”
Expanded IoT Operations Dashboard and IoT Partner Portal
HPE is also expanding its HPE Aruba Networking Central IoT Operations dashboard, which allows retailers to take advantage of pre-built third-party applications from HPE retail partners to enhance capabilities of the access points and improve visibility into IoT applications at the edge.
At NRF, HPE is also showcasing new and existing partners and their extensive ecosystem of business solutions – delivered via HPE’s IoT partner portal – helping build a wide range of retail applications such as real-time video for fraud detection, inventory management and promotion, location analytics and pricing optimisation. HPE boasts one of the largest IoT partner ecosystems for retail, with several joining HPE at NRF including:
- Hanshow with their highly interactive electronic shelf labels (ESL) to facilitate store management, ESLs enhance the consumer shopping experience.
- Simbe with their “world’s first” autonomous item-scanning robot—to track product location, stock levels, and pricing accuracy.
- SOLUM offers digital shelf labels, electronic signage, and smart facility solutions.
- VusionGroup provides solutions for computer vision AI, IoT asset management, electronic shelf labels and digital displays.
- Zebra Technologies delivers hardware, software, and services to support omnichannel retailing including wearable devices, RFID scanners, barcode printers, environmental sensors and intelligent cabinets.
