Virtualization in retail: Options for virtualizing small, medium and large store systems

For many years, software virtualization has allowed retailers to deliver improved store-based applications without the need to add hardware capacity. Customer-facing applications such as stock control and customer loyalty programs, and colleague-facing applications such as replenishment and staff rotas are critical to store success. As the number and complexity of store applications increases, retailers will frequently use hardware and software virtualization techniques to support the increased demands for capacity while avoiding the cost of supplying additional hardware.  As retailers increasingly adopt tech-driven solutions, virtualization is helping improve operational efficiency, enhance customer experiences and streamline processes.

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Adopting the right virtualization technology within stores can provide a significant competitive advantage. By reducing costs, increasing scalability and improving data management, virtualization helps stores adapt quickly and stay competitive. However, retailers have recently seen dramatically escalating costs with some existing solutions.

This article explores how Red Hat can provide multiple virtualization-based solutions for retail stores of all sizes—small, medium and large. From cost-effective solutions for small stores to full-scale virtualization solutions for large retail chains, each size requires a tailored approach. We’ll delve into the benefits, practical applications and virtualization requirements, offering insights on how you can select the right solution based on your store’s specific needs.

Why does store virtualization matter?

Virtualization allows users to create multiple simulated environments or dedicated resources from a single, physical hardware system. Software called a hypervisor connects directly to that hardware and lets users split one system into separate and distinct environments known as virtual machines (VMs). These VMs rely on the hypervisor’s ability to separate the machine’s resources from the hardware and distribute them appropriately.

Virtualization is available in a number of different forms, but the most common approach for retail store virtualization is server-based. A larger physical machine is deployed to a store and is used to host multiple VMs. Each VM typically contains an operating system, such as Linux or Windows, plus the store application.

Using a “cookie cutter” approach, a retailer can define the physical server, VM and application approach for one store, then replicate the initial design across multiple stores, gaining efficiency of scale while minimizing complexity. As applications change, new versions of the VM are pushed to the store to replace the previous version.

Virtualization has been available for many years—it’s robust and capable of handling the complexities of VMs. For this reason, virtualization is frequently used by retailers in store environments to host virtual machines. Application modernization approaches advocate breaking VMs into smaller, lighter and more easily deployed units such as containers. Taking advantage of newer technology like containers brings many advantages, but migrating existing store based applications from VMs to containers comes with the risk and complexity associated with change.

Many retailers may wish to retain their existing investment in VM-based store applications, but require new store hardware when either replacing aging store servers or deploying new applications. Continuing to use an existing virtualization approach for stores with newer hardware allows a retailer to further drive cost efficiency and flexibility without increasing their risk to customer or business expectations.

What are the virtualization options available from Red Hat for small, medium and large stores?

Small stores

A typical small grocery or retail store is probably less than 280m2 (3,000 sq. feet) and finding space to house IT equipment and Point of Sale (POS) systems is a challenge. In these situations in-store servers are often required to host multiple VMs and workloads in a small physical server footprint. With so little space for physical servers available, virtualization is one way to maximize the compute capacity within the store. Virtualization has matured to a level where requirements such as backup, recovery, failover, high availability and patching are often provided by the underlying infrastructure, largely eliminating the need for the retailer to provide these capabilities through the retail applications.

How would Red Hat recommend retailers virtualize workloads in such a limited and constrained environment whilst still meeting the requirements of backup, recovery and availability demanded by a small store?

Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is an enterprise-ready, fully supported open source virtualization technology built into Linux. Specifically, KVM turns Linux into a hypervisor that allows a host machine to run multiple, isolated virtual environments called guests or VMs. KVM is part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and because KVM is part of existing Linux code, it immediately benefits from every new Linux feature, fix and advancement without additional engineering.

Using KVM, a retailer could host multiple VMs running store operations on one physical machine located in the store. This solution is cost effective, requires minimal upfront investment and can reuse existing store applications deployed as VMs.

Red Hat customers who have adopted KVM with RHEL, have seen significant savings over traditional virtualization offerings, allowing them to allocate more budget to other critical projects such as application modernization or delivery of new services.

Medium stores

A medium-sized grocery or retail store could be 280m2 to 1,400 m2 (3,000 to 15,000 sq. feet) and will usually have enough space to house a limited amount of IT equipment, possibly with a half-height rack. As retailers step up from a small to a medium sized store, customers will expect increased services such as loyalty programs, self-checkout and possibly wi-fi within the store. The increase in store size brings larger IT demands and will require additional software applications. The size increase will also bring expectations of capabilities including higher availability, reduced application downtime and fully-enabled backup and recovery features should applications fail.

With the increased space and a higher demand for IT resources to meet customer expectations, how would Red Hat recommend retailers virtualize workloads in a medium sized store?

Red Hat OpenShift is a Kubernetes-based container platform, but when coupled with KVM, it has the capability to host both containers and VMs. With the extra compute capacity available in a medium sized store, retailers can now use Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization to host the additional demands.

Using OpenShift Virtualization with a topology known as single node OpenShift, a retailer can host the additional operational complexity of a medium sized store. By increasing the store IT capacity to a single medium sized server, the retailer can use the small footprint of single node OpenShift to increase application availability, maintain remote data center management while dynamically scaling the in-store services.

Large stores, warehouse and distribution centers

A large retail or grocery store will easily exceed 1,500m2 (15,000 sq. feet). For many retailers this is a typical store size. The size and logistical requirements for these types of stores requires them to have a dedicated IT equipment room containing multiple racks of hardware. The IT equipment can consist of multiple instances of devices to provide redundancy.

Applications running in the store can include CCTV recording systems, support for many local POS devices, network equipment, wi-fi networks, support for hand-held scanners and local data storage. The equipment and applications will be architected to allow for store trading should the network to the store fail or become unavailable. With the increasing demands by customers for improved shopping experience such as in-store promotions and loyalty programs, the IT equipment required by large stores is likely to increase dramatically when compared to a medium-sized store.

The challenge for large store format retailers is to provide a robust and reliable store infrastructure whilst managing high customer volumes and providing a seamless customer experience. As customer expectations for an improved shopping experience increase, the size and complexity of the infrastructure required to satisfy these demands will also increase. With increased customer footfall and higher expectations for flawless IT services, data volumes will grow, driving the requirements for improved data availability, reliability and recoverability to prevent data loss.

Warehouses and distribution centers will typically occupy more space than a large store, but the IT challenges will be similar. Increasing automation, complex distribution requirements with reduced time scales for stock movements and larger capacity buildings places increased pressure on IT to be robust, scalable and highly available.

With increased demands for IT resources, data capacity and high volume workloads, how would Red Hat recommend retailers virtualize workloads in a large store, warehouse or distribution center?

Increasing the hardware and compute resources available allows OpenShift Virtualization to scale the number and complexity of VMs while also meeting the additional requirements for improved availability, scalability, reliability and recovery. Increasing the OpenShift cluster size to encompass multiple hardware nodes, allows OpenShift to deliver enhanced service level agreements (SLAs) for VM availability.

Increasing the OpenShift cluster size to include additional physical nodes benefits large stores and warehouses through higher efficiency of existing compute resources. Cost savings are realized through the use of commodity store-based hardware and simplified management through the use of existing central IT resources. By virtualizing, retailers can improve real-time decision making, increase data analytics and take advantage of improved AI capabilities by moving these features closer to the consumer and colleagues within the store.

How to choose the right virtualization solution based on store size?

From the three solutions, choosing the right virtualization approach depends on the size and complexity of the retail operation. Small stores often have limited IT needs and budgets, while large retail chains require robust, scalable solutions that can handle high data volumes and complex infrastructure. Medium-sized retailers fall somewhere in between, needing more flexibility as they grow.

In this section, we’ll break down the most suitable virtualization options for small, medium and large retail stores. The table below provides a comparison of how different virtualization technologies can meet the needs of retailers based on their size, operational challenges and long-term growth goals

Wrap up

As retailers continue to improve customer and colleague engagement, virtualization technology remains a significant tool for stores of all sizes. Whether running a number of small stores, or managing a significant retail operation across multiple large stores, the right virtualization solution can streamline operations, reduce costs and enhance customer experiences. Small stores can benefit from cost-effective commodity hardware that eliminates the need for heavy IT infrastructure, while medium-sized stores can leverage hybrid solutions to manage multiple locations efficiently. Large stores, with their complex infrastructures, stand to gain from full-scale virtualization, edge computing and AI-driven analytics.

The key is to align a virtualization strategy with the store size. By investing in the right technologies now, retailers can provide scalability, boost operational efficiency and stay competitive in an increasingly digital retail environment. Red Hat offers multiple virtualization choices which can scale, grow and adapt to meet the needs of retailers as they, and their stores, grow in size.

Learn more

Virtualization events from Red Hat

• Red Hat Events

Further retail articles from Red Hat

• The revolution of retail technology - how to deliver the best integrated in-store experience to date
• Architecting retail solutions
• Why enterprise open source matters in retail

Further virtualization articles from Red Hat

• Migrating virtual machines from vSphere to Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization with the migration toolkit for virtualization
• Learn OpenShift Virtualization: 7 training resources to help you get started
• Reaching escape velocity for OpenShift Virtualization