Storms in the Cloud

The cloud is much like using a WAN (wide area network) or VPN (virtual private network).  Everything is connected and just seems to work.  The problem comes when things stop working.

‘What if’ your internet (or connection) goes down?  This could be due to a provider issue, a router, a switch, a cable in or outside the business, or construction cutting wires.  The thing is it happens.  If you are using the cloud, what happens to your business ability to enter transactions?  There is always a point of failure which at some point will stop applications.

ProphetLine POS Software has a local database on a terminal in your business.  If your internet goes down, it could stop functions which rely on it such as credit card processing, but it does not stop you from assisting your customers.  In this case, the only point of failure will be the terminal with the data.  If this computer ‘dies’, ProphetLine will stop working.  Since your data is kept local, however, we can help you move the data to another terminal and have you back up and running in very little time.  You are in control of the time frame, not some outside force telling you ‘we are working on it’.

The other ‘draw’ of ‘the cloud’ is real-time data.  When I am asked about real-time data, my first question is usually what do you need to have in real-time?  Reports?  Inventory counts?  ProphetLine can sync data in user defined time increments.  This could be every 5 minutes to once a day, but most people find they only really need data certain times during the day not in real-time.

This can be had with ProphetLine.  But even then, if the quantity on-hand is an hour old, does it matter?  If you show 1 on-hand at another location in real-time or with it being data that is an hour old what are you going to do?  You will most likely call the other location, verify the quantity and have them hold the item for the customer.  Real-time is still not needed.