Let’s imagine you run a retail shop with a few point-of-sale (POS) units. It’s likely these units communicate in real time with a backend server located either in the cloud or at your head office. If the network goes down, your options depend on exactly where is the point of failure is.
If the failure arises from a network issue, a backup Internet connection can keep your shop up and running. It the server is down, you may require a store redundancy server to ensure continuity of service. You don’t want your customers to go to your competitor next door and find out that they provide a better shopping experience than yours!
A potential solution can be found in constrained services. Constrained services refer to often low-tech solutions, such as having a paper docket in the drawer to write an order manually and a folder containing product codes and prices. Of course, for a POS terminal it may also be OK for some functionality to remain temporarily unavailable, such as seeing the status of stock in other stores, maintenance management or lay-by processing.
No cloud is the same
In my experience, with many small and medium-sized businesses, there is no single solution when it comes to cloud services.
Every business has different needs and views on which applications are the most critical, so it is important to find the infrastructure that is most suitable for you.
Cloud applications may be great for some business applications – for others, an in-house system may be the only option. Between these two extremes, there is a multitude of scenarios that need to be carefully assessed to ensure your business continuity.
Paul Goepfert
Marketing Manager, Pronto Software
Stephen Duncan
13 February 2012