HelloFresh Australia

Key Stats

• 2-3 hours saved per week per location
• Cost savings of $8,000-$10,000 AUS per site
• 5 sites currently in Australia, and growing

Overview

HelloFresh is on a mission to forever change the way people eat. Its meal kit service is much more than just food delivery—it transforms the casual meal prepper into a home chef who can find pride in their healthy (and delicious) creations.

HelloFresh has quickly become the most popular meal service in the world because of its accessibility, healthy meal options, and focus on thinking outside the box—literally. Each meal box is mailed with C02-neutral delivery. The innovative company has put a priority on sustainability with an integral goal of building food solutions with the least possible impact on the environment.

Challenge

Cloud-based technology is vital for HelloFresh to reach its goals and continue to grow and innovate. As a global company operating in 20 countries and expanding rapidly, HelloFresh needed reliable and secure technology to connect its Australia sites, employees, counterparts, and processes.

With a priority on sustainability, the company required a way to monitor Wi-Fi connections and network security while optimizing traffic—without leaving a significant hardware footprint or needing to constantly travel the far distances between the Australia locations to manage devices. The challenge was to ensure that the site and campus connections were secure and reliable while keeping costs (and impact) low.

Solution

[With monitoring,] you have that path to everything across the cloud and accessible everywhere, which is the ease that you want as an engineer.

Damien Paget
Infrastructure Engineer, HelloFresh Australia

To address the challenge of implementing secure connections between smaller sites and its campuses, HelloFresh Australia implemented a cloud-managed solution using Cisco Meraki MX security and SD-WAN appliances and Cisco Catalyst switches that can all be monitored from one Meraki dashboard.

The cloud-based Meraki platform makes it easy to configure, support, and monitor IT infrastructure through a single, intuitive dashboard that is securely accessible from anywhere through a web browser or mobile app. Meraki MX appliances are available in various models designed for small branches to large campus locations, and combine multiple advanced security capabilities including a stateful firewall, IDS/IPS, content filtering, and Advanced Malware Protection (AMP).

By consolidating security technologies into one device, plus the breadth of MX models, HelloFresh Australia was able to save around $10,000 AUS per site on hardware costs. Most importantly, MX appliances give HelloFresh Australia peace of mind knowing its local site connections are secure, optimized, and have self-healing technology built in to fulfill the network needs of users and employees at all locations.

In addition to the Meraki MX appliances, HelloFresh Australia also utilizes the Meraki dashboard to monitor their Catalyst switches in the cloud. This allows for easier management and monitoring of their network, which cuts down on the need to be on-site for every small issue that may arise. Instead they can troubleshoot their entire infrastructure remotely via the Meraki dashboard. The Catalyst portfolio offers a robust range of features, including advanced security, quality of service (QoS), and management capabilities, making them ideal for use in large networks like the HelloFresh Australia configuration.

Results

Meraki products have made my job easier by providing a platform that is simple to configure, support, and monitor IT infrastructure through a single, intuitive dashboard.

Damien Paget

Infrastructure Engineer, HelloFresh Australia

The consolidation of the switching and secure SD-WAN appliances onto the Cisco Meraki platform, enables HelloFresh Australia to save at least three hours a week by having an easy-to-access interface to troubleshoot and remediate issues and secure its regional locations.

Meraki MX security and SD-WAN appliances have improved the user experience with automatic WAN failover and path selection in the event carrier links are down or experiencing high packet loss or latency. In addition to creating an SD-WAN fabric that securely connects sites across the region, MX appliances include advanced security capabilities informed by the world’s largest security intelligence team, Cisco Talos, to automatically protect HelloFresh Australia against the latest cybersecurity threats.

The Meraki platform and Catalyst switches have allowed HelloFresh Australia to establish a reliable and secure regional connection that is easy to manage and monitor through one dashboard, while optimizing its network traffic. This mix of Meraki MX appliances and the cloud-managed Meraki platform, alongside the Cisco Catalyst portfolio, has made for a perfect recipe to help HelloFresh Australia deliver exceptional experiences from site to doorstep to kitchen.