The Ultimate Makeover: Ulta Beauty Reinvents its Network to Deliver a Seamless Retail Experience

Baltimore Aircoil Replaces MPLS with Cato, Improving Voice Quality, Enabling Video Conferencing, and Increasing Agility Summary: Legacy infrastructure and daily network slowdowns stood in the way of Ulta Beauty’s next chapter. At a pivotal moment in its growth, the company reimagined its network and security architecture—laying a resilient foundation to scale, expand globally, and innovate faster.  Key Results 95% reduction in issues requiring on-site attention 5x increase in nightly cutover capacity Double-digit percent decrease in telecommunications costs  At the Forefront of the Beauty Boom It’s fitting that an industry built on transformation has undergone an unprecedented makeover in the past decade. One of the players at the heart of this evolution is Ulta Beauty, a company that hasn’t just ridden the wave—it’s been making its own. Offering more than 25,000 products from 600 beauty brands across 1,500 stores in all 50 US states, Ulta Beauty is the largest beauty retailer in the US. As the beauty category expanded dramatically and guest expectations evolved, Ulta Beauty’s vision for global expansion, new services, and elevated in-store experiences would require a bold transformation in how its technology supported the business. Oscar Moncada joined Ulta Beauty as part of the leadership team guiding this technology transformation. With experience modernizing large-scale environments, Moncada stepped into a role now overseeing IT infrastructure, architecture, cloud and security. “There’s been a meaningful reinvestment in technology across the enterprise,” says Moncada. Before any innovation could happen, one foundational piece needed to be strengthened: the network. Untangling Complexity to Build a Scalable Retail Network As Ulta Beauty’s business continued to grow, its store network became a strategic priority for modernization. The legacy network environment, built on SD-WAN and MPLS with redundant firewall appliances in every store and traffic backhauled to two centralized data centers, was increasingly strained under rising demands. Ulta Beauty set out to evolve its architecture to support the next phase of innovation. “We needed to reduce tech debt, scale faster, and create a network designed for where the business was headed,” Moncada explains. This led to a full-scale modernization effort that reimagined how the network could power Ulta Beauty’s long-term vision for the Store of the Future—redesigned thoughtfully, end-to-end, to support growth, innovation, and operational excellence. Ulta Beauty store interior A Network Redesign Begins with a Shift to SASE To reduce latency, ease management, and unify fragmented infrastructure, Ulta needed to shift from centralized data centers to a distributed, cloud-native architecture. Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) offered the ideal solution, converging networking and security into a single platform with centralized firewall control and a global network of Points of Presence (PoPs) to boost performance. “We wanted a platform where we could manage everything from one place, especially as we grew,” Moncada explains. The team chose Cato Networks and the Cato SASE Platform for its solution maturity, pace of innovation, and collaboration.  “Cato continually evolves their roadmap in partnership with customers,” Moncada says. “They listen, collaborate, and turn feedback into real product improvements.” “Cato continually evolves their roadmap in partnership with customers,” Moncada says. “They listen, collaborate, and turn feedback into real product improvements.” Oscar Moncada, SVP of IT infrastructure, Architecture, Cloud, and Security at Ulta Beauty Early in the partnership, Cato helped Ulta Beauty deploy AirPrint, a long-requested feature that had stalled on the previous stack. Soon after, Cato refined its pooled-bandwidth model in response to Ulta Beauty’s feedback, reflecting the collaborative approach both teams valued. From Manual to Zero-Touch: A Three-Year Plan to Modernize 1,500 Stores As part of its enterprise priorities, Ulta Beauty mapped out a three-year plan to modernize its network across all 1,500 stores, replacing its legacy networking infrastructure and, with the move to SASE, retire 3,000 appliance-based firewalls in favor of a single, centrally managed cloud firewall. At the same time, Ulta Beauty planned a full Wi-Fi refresh (with a different vendor) coordinated with each store’s networking upgrade, adding even more complexity to the transformation. “This was by far the biggest tech transformation I have been a part of in my career,” Moncada says. Coordinating both networking and Wi-Fi upgrades made each store cutover a delicate operation. The team began with a small, controlled pilot with manual configurations, ensuring all devices, registers, and access points successfully reconnected. As they refined the process, Ulta Beauty worked with the Cato customer success team to build an almost zero-touch model, scripting and automating the cutover workflow as much as possible. “We started just one or two stores per night with 70-90% success rates,” says Moncada. “Now the success rate is 99.99% and we are able to upgrade 10 stores per night.” Better Performance, Lower Costs, and Stronger Security As the rollout gained speed and stability, the benefits of the new architecture became clear. With access to Cato’s network of 85+ global Points of Presence, Ulta Beauty routes traffic through the closest hub instead of backhauling to a central data center. This shift gives stores faster, more reliable access to cloud applications and the internet. And with a fully converged platform, Ulta Beauty can inspect and manage all traffic—across the WAN, internet, cloud, and devices—from one place. The transformation has unlocked meaningful improvements across three major areas: Enhanced performance and in-store experience: Reliable, predictable connectivity. “We get a business continuity report every day,” Moncada says. “Not a single Cato Socket has failed, and outages that once came daily are virtually nonexistent.” Confident store operations. The upgraded network consistently supports routine activities like large virtual meetings. “They work with confidence because the network is reliable,” Moncada adds. Operational and financial efficiency: Significant cost savings. Moving from MPLS to DIA resulted in a double-digit percent decrease in annual telecommunications costs. Fewer truck rolls. On-site dispatches—previously five per day at $300 per hour—have dropped by about 95%. Hands-off maintenance. Firmware, firewall, and feature updates—about 40 per week—are delivered directly from the cloud, freeing IT to focus on strategic work. Cleaner infrastructure. With most capabilities delivered through the cloud, stores no longer rely on stacks of hardware. “Our CIO and CEO send pictures from store visits and say, ‘The rack looks great, and the store is happy with the network,’” says Moncada. Streamlined security and compliance: Unified visibility and control. Networking and security teams work from the same data and policies across stores and distribution centers. Effortless compliance. “Whether it’s PCI DSS or GDPR, our new way of working simplifies how we meet our compliance obligations,” Moncada says. As part of its broader infrastructure transformation, Ulta Beauty has reduced network outages by 89% across its entire enterprise environment, including stores, distribution centers, data centers, and corporate offices. From Firefighting to Future Building With a newly modernized network taking shape, Ulta Beauty can now begin to explore technology like real-time digital engagement strategies, automated nail technicians, and streaming surveillance to the cloud. Moncada’s focus has shifted to international expansion and strategic business initiatives. With Ulta Beauty’s expansion into Mexico, the UK and the Middle East in 2025, the company’s modern network provides a scalable platform for growth, for AI-driven processes, and deeper cloud integration. “We’ve made significant progress strengthening our infrastructure, and the team spends far less time managing the network,” Moncada says. “With a solid foundation in place, we’re confident building and scaling new technologies across our stores.” “We’ve made significant progress strengthening our infrastructure, and the team spends far less time managing the network. With a solid foundation in place, we’re confident building and scaling new technologies across our stores.” Oscar Moncada, SVP of IT infrastructure, Architecture, Cloud, and Security at Ulta Beauty For Ulta Beauty, a modernized infrastructure is more than a tech upgrade—it's the engine driving the beauty retailer's next chapter.

CIAL Dun & Bradstreet Improves Networking and Security in Latin American with Cato Summary: Legacy infrastructure and daily network slowdowns stood in the way of Ulta Beauty’s next chapter. At a pivotal moment in its growth, the company reimagined its network and security architecture—laying a resilient foundation to scale, expand globally, and innovate faster.  Key Results 95% reduction in issues requiring on-site attention 5x increase in nightly cutover capacity Double-digit percent decrease in telecommunications costs  At the Forefront of the Beauty Boom It’s fitting that an industry built on transformation has undergone an unprecedented makeover in the past decade. One of the players at the heart of this evolution is Ulta Beauty, a company that hasn’t just ridden the wave—it’s been making its own. Offering more than 25,000 products from 600 beauty brands across 1,500 stores in all 50 US states, Ulta Beauty is the largest beauty retailer in the US. As the beauty category expanded dramatically and guest expectations evolved, Ulta Beauty’s vision for global expansion, new services, and elevated in-store experiences would require a bold transformation in how its technology supported the business. Oscar Moncada joined Ulta Beauty as part of the leadership team guiding this technology transformation. With experience modernizing large-scale environments, Moncada stepped into a role now overseeing IT infrastructure, architecture, cloud and security. “There’s been a meaningful reinvestment in technology across the enterprise,” says Moncada. Before any innovation could happen, one foundational piece needed to be strengthened: the network. Untangling Complexity to Build a Scalable Retail Network As Ulta Beauty’s business continued to grow, its store network became a strategic priority for modernization. The legacy network environment, built on SD-WAN and MPLS with redundant firewall appliances in every store and traffic backhauled to two centralized data centers, was increasingly strained under rising demands. Ulta Beauty set out to evolve its architecture to support the next phase of innovation. “We needed to reduce tech debt, scale faster, and create a network designed for where the business was headed,” Moncada explains. This led to a full-scale modernization effort that reimagined how the network could power Ulta Beauty’s long-term vision for the Store of the Future—redesigned thoughtfully, end-to-end, to support growth, innovation, and operational excellence. Ulta Beauty store interior A Network Redesign Begins with a Shift to SASE To reduce latency, ease management, and unify fragmented infrastructure, Ulta needed to shift from centralized data centers to a distributed, cloud-native architecture. Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) offered the ideal solution, converging networking and security into a single platform with centralized firewall control and a global network of Points of Presence (PoPs) to boost performance. “We wanted a platform where we could manage everything from one place, especially as we grew,” Moncada explains. The team chose Cato Networks and the Cato SASE Platform for its solution maturity, pace of innovation, and collaboration.  “Cato continually evolves their roadmap in partnership with customers,” Moncada says. “They listen, collaborate, and turn feedback into real product improvements.” “Cato continually evolves their roadmap in partnership with customers,” Moncada says. “They listen, collaborate, and turn feedback into real product improvements.” Oscar Moncada, SVP of IT infrastructure, Architecture, Cloud, and Security at Ulta Beauty Early in the partnership, Cato helped Ulta Beauty deploy AirPrint, a long-requested feature that had stalled on the previous stack. Soon after, Cato refined its pooled-bandwidth model in response to Ulta Beauty’s feedback, reflecting the collaborative approach both teams valued. From Manual to Zero-Touch: A Three-Year Plan to Modernize 1,500 Stores As part of its enterprise priorities, Ulta Beauty mapped out a three-year plan to modernize its network across all 1,500 stores, replacing its legacy networking infrastructure and, with the move to SASE, retire 3,000 appliance-based firewalls in favor of a single, centrally managed cloud firewall. At the same time, Ulta Beauty planned a full Wi-Fi refresh (with a different vendor) coordinated with each store’s networking upgrade, adding even more complexity to the transformation. “This was by far the biggest tech transformation I have been a part of in my career,” Moncada says. Coordinating both networking and Wi-Fi upgrades made each store cutover a delicate operation. The team began with a small, controlled pilot with manual configurations, ensuring all devices, registers, and access points successfully reconnected. As they refined the process, Ulta Beauty worked with the Cato customer success team to build an almost zero-touch model, scripting and automating the cutover workflow as much as possible. “We started just one or two stores per night with 70-90% success rates,” says Moncada. “Now the success rate is 99.99% and we are able to upgrade 10 stores per night.” Better Performance, Lower Costs, and Stronger Security As the rollout gained speed and stability, the benefits of the new architecture became clear. With access to Cato’s network of 85+ global Points of Presence, Ulta Beauty routes traffic through the closest hub instead of backhauling to a central data center. This shift gives stores faster, more reliable access to cloud applications and the internet. And with a fully converged platform, Ulta Beauty can inspect and manage all traffic—across the WAN, internet, cloud, and devices—from one place. The transformation has unlocked meaningful improvements across three major areas: Enhanced performance and in-store experience: Reliable, predictable connectivity. “We get a business continuity report every day,” Moncada says. “Not a single Cato Socket has failed, and outages that once came daily are virtually nonexistent.” Confident store operations. The upgraded network consistently supports routine activities like large virtual meetings. “They work with confidence because the network is reliable,” Moncada adds. Operational and financial efficiency: Significant cost savings. Moving from MPLS to DIA resulted in a double-digit percent decrease in annual telecommunications costs. Fewer truck rolls. On-site dispatches—previously five per day at $300 per hour—have dropped by about 95%. Hands-off maintenance. Firmware, firewall, and feature updates—about 40 per week—are delivered directly from the cloud, freeing IT to focus on strategic work. Cleaner infrastructure. With most capabilities delivered through the cloud, stores no longer rely on stacks of hardware. “Our CIO and CEO send pictures from store visits and say, ‘The rack looks great, and the store is happy with the network,’” says Moncada. Streamlined security and compliance: Unified visibility and control. Networking and security teams work from the same data and policies across stores and distribution centers. Effortless compliance. “Whether it’s PCI DSS or GDPR, our new way of working simplifies how we meet our compliance obligations,” Moncada says. As part of its broader infrastructure transformation, Ulta Beauty has reduced network outages by 89% across its entire enterprise environment, including stores, distribution centers, data centers, and corporate offices. From Firefighting to Future Building With a newly modernized network taking shape, Ulta Beauty can now begin to explore technology like real-time digital engagement strategies, automated nail technicians, and streaming surveillance to the cloud. Moncada’s focus has shifted to international expansion and strategic business initiatives. With Ulta Beauty’s expansion into Mexico, the UK and the Middle East in 2025, the company’s modern network provides a scalable platform for growth, for AI-driven processes, and deeper cloud integration. “We’ve made significant progress strengthening our infrastructure, and the team spends far less time managing the network,” Moncada says. “With a solid foundation in place, we’re confident building and scaling new technologies across our stores.” “We’ve made significant progress strengthening our infrastructure, and the team spends far less time managing the network. With a solid foundation in place, we’re confident building and scaling new technologies across our stores.” Oscar Moncada, SVP of IT infrastructure, Architecture, Cloud, and Security at Ulta Beauty For Ulta Beauty, a modernized infrastructure is more than a tech upgrade—it's the engine driving the beauty retailer's next chapter.

Diamond Braces Uses Cato to Boost WAN Security, Performance, and Reliability Summary: Legacy infrastructure and daily network slowdowns stood in the way of Ulta Beauty’s next chapter. At a pivotal moment in its growth, the company reimagined its network and security architecture—laying a resilient foundation to scale, expand globally, and innovate faster.  Key Results 95% reduction in issues requiring on-site attention 5x increase in nightly cutover capacity Double-digit percent decrease in telecommunications costs  At the Forefront of the Beauty Boom It’s fitting that an industry built on transformation has undergone an unprecedented makeover in the past decade. One of the players at the heart of this evolution is Ulta Beauty, a company that hasn’t just ridden the wave—it’s been making its own. Offering more than 25,000 products from 600 beauty brands across 1,500 stores in all 50 US states, Ulta Beauty is the largest beauty retailer in the US. As the beauty category expanded dramatically and guest expectations evolved, Ulta Beauty’s vision for global expansion, new services, and elevated in-store experiences would require a bold transformation in how its technology supported the business. Oscar Moncada joined Ulta Beauty as part of the leadership team guiding this technology transformation. With experience modernizing large-scale environments, Moncada stepped into a role now overseeing IT infrastructure, architecture, cloud and security. “There’s been a meaningful reinvestment in technology across the enterprise,” says Moncada. Before any innovation could happen, one foundational piece needed to be strengthened: the network. Untangling Complexity to Build a Scalable Retail Network As Ulta Beauty’s business continued to grow, its store network became a strategic priority for modernization. The legacy network environment, built on SD-WAN and MPLS with redundant firewall appliances in every store and traffic backhauled to two centralized data centers, was increasingly strained under rising demands. Ulta Beauty set out to evolve its architecture to support the next phase of innovation. “We needed to reduce tech debt, scale faster, and create a network designed for where the business was headed,” Moncada explains. This led to a full-scale modernization effort that reimagined how the network could power Ulta Beauty’s long-term vision for the Store of the Future—redesigned thoughtfully, end-to-end, to support growth, innovation, and operational excellence. Ulta Beauty store interior A Network Redesign Begins with a Shift to SASE To reduce latency, ease management, and unify fragmented infrastructure, Ulta needed to shift from centralized data centers to a distributed, cloud-native architecture. Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) offered the ideal solution, converging networking and security into a single platform with centralized firewall control and a global network of Points of Presence (PoPs) to boost performance. “We wanted a platform where we could manage everything from one place, especially as we grew,” Moncada explains. The team chose Cato Networks and the Cato SASE Platform for its solution maturity, pace of innovation, and collaboration.  “Cato continually evolves their roadmap in partnership with customers,” Moncada says. “They listen, collaborate, and turn feedback into real product improvements.” “Cato continually evolves their roadmap in partnership with customers,” Moncada says. “They listen, collaborate, and turn feedback into real product improvements.” Oscar Moncada, SVP of IT infrastructure, Architecture, Cloud, and Security at Ulta Beauty Early in the partnership, Cato helped Ulta Beauty deploy AirPrint, a long-requested feature that had stalled on the previous stack. Soon after, Cato refined its pooled-bandwidth model in response to Ulta Beauty’s feedback, reflecting the collaborative approach both teams valued. From Manual to Zero-Touch: A Three-Year Plan to Modernize 1,500 Stores As part of its enterprise priorities, Ulta Beauty mapped out a three-year plan to modernize its network across all 1,500 stores, replacing its legacy networking infrastructure and, with the move to SASE, retire 3,000 appliance-based firewalls in favor of a single, centrally managed cloud firewall. At the same time, Ulta Beauty planned a full Wi-Fi refresh (with a different vendor) coordinated with each store’s networking upgrade, adding even more complexity to the transformation. “This was by far the biggest tech transformation I have been a part of in my career,” Moncada says. Coordinating both networking and Wi-Fi upgrades made each store cutover a delicate operation. The team began with a small, controlled pilot with manual configurations, ensuring all devices, registers, and access points successfully reconnected. As they refined the process, Ulta Beauty worked with the Cato customer success team to build an almost zero-touch model, scripting and automating the cutover workflow as much as possible. “We started just one or two stores per night with 70-90% success rates,” says Moncada. “Now the success rate is 99.99% and we are able to upgrade 10 stores per night.” Better Performance, Lower Costs, and Stronger Security As the rollout gained speed and stability, the benefits of the new architecture became clear. With access to Cato’s network of 85+ global Points of Presence, Ulta Beauty routes traffic through the closest hub instead of backhauling to a central data center. This shift gives stores faster, more reliable access to cloud applications and the internet. And with a fully converged platform, Ulta Beauty can inspect and manage all traffic—across the WAN, internet, cloud, and devices—from one place. The transformation has unlocked meaningful improvements across three major areas: Enhanced performance and in-store experience: Reliable, predictable connectivity. “We get a business continuity report every day,” Moncada says. “Not a single Cato Socket has failed, and outages that once came daily are virtually nonexistent.” Confident store operations. The upgraded network consistently supports routine activities like large virtual meetings. “They work with confidence because the network is reliable,” Moncada adds. Operational and financial efficiency: Significant cost savings. Moving from MPLS to DIA resulted in a double-digit percent decrease in annual telecommunications costs. Fewer truck rolls. On-site dispatches—previously five per day at $300 per hour—have dropped by about 95%. Hands-off maintenance. Firmware, firewall, and feature updates—about 40 per week—are delivered directly from the cloud, freeing IT to focus on strategic work. Cleaner infrastructure. With most capabilities delivered through the cloud, stores no longer rely on stacks of hardware. “Our CIO and CEO send pictures from store visits and say, ‘The rack looks great, and the store is happy with the network,’” says Moncada. Streamlined security and compliance: Unified visibility and control. Networking and security teams work from the same data and policies across stores and distribution centers. Effortless compliance. “Whether it’s PCI DSS or GDPR, our new way of working simplifies how we meet our compliance obligations,” Moncada says. As part of its broader infrastructure transformation, Ulta Beauty has reduced network outages by 89% across its entire enterprise environment, including stores, distribution centers, data centers, and corporate offices. From Firefighting to Future Building With a newly modernized network taking shape, Ulta Beauty can now begin to explore technology like real-time digital engagement strategies, automated nail technicians, and streaming surveillance to the cloud. Moncada’s focus has shifted to international expansion and strategic business initiatives. With Ulta Beauty’s expansion into Mexico, the UK and the Middle East in 2025, the company’s modern network provides a scalable platform for growth, for AI-driven processes, and deeper cloud integration. “We’ve made significant progress strengthening our infrastructure, and the team spends far less time managing the network,” Moncada says. “With a solid foundation in place, we’re confident building and scaling new technologies across our stores.” “We’ve made significant progress strengthening our infrastructure, and the team spends far less time managing the network. With a solid foundation in place, we’re confident building and scaling new technologies across our stores.” Oscar Moncada, SVP of IT infrastructure, Architecture, Cloud, and Security at Ulta Beauty For Ulta Beauty, a modernized infrastructure is more than a tech upgrade—it's the engine driving the beauty retailer's next chapter.