Cheap Internet Can Cost Businesses Time, Money and Productivity
YumaPOS is a Cloud based System
“A cloud-based system, often known as cloud computing, is a broad term for anything that involves the delivery of hosted services via the Internet”
The quoted article above is a great history on cloud based computing and a way to disappear down a rabbit hole for a few hours.
Fully Hosted
You can have a system that is fully hosted ( lives ) at your business address. This will usually require mid to high end hardware that is often beyond the budget. You then need to allow for the maintenance and administration costs of the servers. If you have not been maintaining off site backups ( or at least keep regular backups in a fire safe ), your system and data could be “toast” in the event of a disaster.
SAAS Alternative
The popular alternative is called SAAS ( Software as a Service ). The server components are “in the cloud” where maintenance and administration is done for you. No, not in fluffy clouds, but in secure data centres that are designed to be robust, are fastidiously maintained and backed up every few hours.
By creating APPS to do specific tasks the hardware you need does not need all that extra computing power. Number crunching is handballed by your APP to a chunky server farm. The answer is then passed from the server back to your APP.
This means you need to have stable and relatively fast internet connections available.
Automatic Failover
While YumaPOS does have “Stand alone” functionality, you will never get the best out of YumaPOS without a reliable internet connection.
Ask your ISP ( internet provider ) what options they have for when your internet dies.
NBN and FTTx are pretty damn reliable, but somebody is going to run over a cable during service. 4G/5G services are mostly interchangeable, with 5G coming out on top for speed, reliability & security.
Just remember, the internet is not going to die when you are not needing it !
Business Plans Come With Guarantees
Please do not go for the cheapest plan you can find … business may be a bit dearer, but you will not be told “we will call you in 24-48hours”
I recommend you look for :
- a top tier carrier ( not a reseller of a reseller )
- xDSL / NBN / FTTx as your primary link
- 4G/5G as an automatically switched back up
- a business plan with a 4hour response time
In Summary
- YumaPOS is multiple APPs and services
- YumaPOS prefers to use LIVE data
- To get the most out of YumaPOS you need internet
- Cheap internet generally has no SLA
- Use a business grade internet plan
- Make sure it has an automatic failover / backup service