Case Study: Specsavers achieves iPad-powered mobile retail and cuts hardware costs with Puppet

Specsavers - Customer Case Study

Specsavers Optical Group, the UK‑based optical retailer with over 2,500 stores and 20,000 client PCs, wanted to free shop‑floor space and speed customer service by using iPads. Their in‑house Java retail app didn’t run on iOS, so initial pilots used VNC to pair each iPad with a dedicated client PC—an approach that worked functionally but didn’t scale (one store ended up with nine client PCs stacked in the back office).

The team built a Docker + Puppet solution that ran multiple instances of the existing app in containers on a single server, upgrading the OS and Java in the process. A pilot replaced nine PCs with one server (capable of 35 containers), matched client performance, and enabled the store to expand to 21 iPads; this cut hardware cost per iPad, freed floor space, improved customer flow, and paved the way to roll out Puppet/Docker across the estate (with Puppet Enterprise planned for future scale).

Specsavers

Shawn Clifton

IT Environment Engagement Manager