Cloud computing is sweeping the world as more and more companies seek to gain the advantages of reduced hardware investment, lower maintenance, ease of provisioning and reduced costs.
But moving to the cloud usually comes with a pretty serious qualifier: the connectivity has to be very good, or it doesn't work at all. In environments such as point of sale (POS), this is particularly important, because when queues form and checkout operators start stressing, business is not going well.
This according to Alan Sher, director and product manager at HansaWorld SAF, who notes that great strides in infrastructure have been made across Africa, mostly to advances in mobile and wireless networks.
Be that as it may, Sher says, reliable, always-on connectivity is far from a given. In Zimbabwe, for example, there is a company that has a central head office, with POS points around the country. When, for any reason, connectivity goes down, this company's business will grind to a halt.
"But it doesn't. That's because it is equipped with a POS solution which seamlessly transitions from online, connected mode, to offline mode. All the till operator knows is that an onscreen green button goes red," he says.
According to Sher, when the connectivity is restored, the system continues to sync back to the head office, transmitting any accumulated data along with current information.
He explains why having a cloud-based solution is the best way to go."Staying with the Zimbabwean example, if this company had 100 points of sale, the 'old' way of doing things would require each to be equipped with a full onsite solution, including a server, all connecting back to a 'mother ship' central server at the head office."
Sher says that is expensive, and not only because of the cost of the equipment, but also in terms of maintenance, which, in Africa, can be difficult to source. "It isn't unheard of for such architectures to be supported by perhaps the ultimate 'man in a van' - a technician who flies in and flies out. That is very costly."
He notes that a cloud solution, by contrast, allows inexpensive off-the-shelf hardware to be used, with most maintenance and support done centrally or remotely. It also allows new offices to be set up far faster, as the terminals in the new premises have an agent installed on them, and then simply access the existing server-side solution.
Businesses across Africa are well aware of these costs and how cloud solutions overcome them, which is exactly why this particular Zimbabwean company chose a cloud-based POS, says Sher.
If a cloud based POS system which works just as well offline is such a good idea, shouldn't every system be like that?
"The answer is yes, absolutely, especially for use in African countries or wherever connectivity is poor or patchy. But, from a technical point of view, achieving this is very difficult. It is far easier to have a 'one or the other' architecture, that is, either cloud or onsite. And that's what most vendors offer."
But the bottom line is that in Africa, if a cloud solution doesn't work just as well when it is offline, it doesn't work at all because it simply isn't good enough, he concludes.
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