Upgrading Network Security for 500+ Circle K Stores in Vietnam with Sophos XGS 88

Client Overview

Circle K is a globally recognized convenience store chain headquartered in the United States and operated by Alimentation Couche-Tard (Canada)—one of the world’s largest retail groups. The brand operates tens of thousands of stores across more than 20 countries and territories.

In Vietnam, Circle K—officially known as Công ty TNHH Vòng Tròn Đỏ—entered the market in 2008, becoming the first international convenience store chain in the country. With the motto “Take it easy,” Circle K offers 24/7 retail services with a wide range of products and convenient solutions, including food & beverages, personal care, bill payments, and mobile top-ups.

Today, Circle K has hundreds of stores across key cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Binh Duong, Vung Tau, and Da Nang, with aggressive plans for continued nationwide expansion.

The Challenges

Each Circle K store in Vietnam is equipped with a dedicated firewall to ensure secure, stable connectivity for operations, transactions, and POS systems. However, a comprehensive audit revealed critical issues:

• Existing firewalls had reached End-of-Life (EOL) status.

• The outdated models no longer met modern performance and cybersecurity requirements.

• Hardware failures were rising due to a lack of available replacement parts, driving up operational costs.

To meet new performance, scalability, and centralized management needs, Circle K made the strategic decision to upgrade its entire national firewall infrastructure.

The Solution: Sophos XGS 88 Deployment

With nearly 500 stores requiring new security devices, Circle K chose Innomation as its trusted deployment partner for the end-to-end firewall upgrade using the Sophos XGS 88 series.

Our role in the project:

• Consulted and recommended the most suitable firewall solution for retail scale

• Supplied, installed, and configured Sophos XGS 88 at each store

• Optimized security policies for compliance and operational efficiency

• Implemented the rollout in a phased “rolling wave” model, ensuring zero disruption to Circle K’s 24/7 retail operations

Why Sophos XGS 88?

• 🧩 Compact form factor with high performance—ideal for distributed retail environments

• 🔐 Next-Gen Firewall capabilities: IPS, antivirus, web filtering, application control

• 🌐 Built-in SD-WAN: Enables flexible, secure connectivity to data centers and cloud platforms

• 📊 Centralized management via Sophos Central: Simplifies policy control, reporting, and monitoring at scale

Results Delivered

• ✅ 500 stores nationwide successfully upgraded to new firewalls, on schedule and with no business disruption

• 🔒 100% policy standardization across all locations, ensuring consistent security posture and centralized access control

• 📈 Over 50% improvement in IT operational efficiency through unified, cloud-based management using Sophos Central

• ⚙️ Fast, seamless deployment executed by TeraBox’s experienced engineering team using an optimized rollout methodology

Scalable Cybersecurity for a Modern Retail Chain

This project is a testament to how smart infrastructure upgrades can transform operational agility and security at scale. With Sophos XGS 88 and centralized management, Circle K is now equipped with a future-proof, centrally controlled network, ready to support its rapid expansion and growing digital service demands.

Innomation is proud to support Vietnam’s leading retail chains in digitizing their IT infrastructure—safely, systematically, and efficiently.