Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 53 | Page 26

BUSINESS INSIGHTS
Think ahead – consider the increasing instability of the grid and consider Edge Computing and whether that ’ s an area you want to invest in .
and can ’ t find what you ’ re looking for on the shelf , you will go somewhere else and , if it ’ s a good experience there , from that moment on you will probably buy more in that store .
These days , people will go online to find the perfect jacket and it ’ s important that the product is available instore too – if they cannot find it , they will go elsewhere .
What are the key requirements for retail organisations when it comes to ensuring they have robust infrastructure in place ?
For the stores , it ’ s even worse . Imagine a store in Cyprus versus one in the UK . Cyprus can be more than 40 degrees Celsius in the summer . As trucks arrive , the doors will open to unload the truck and then that raises the temperature in the warehouse of the store itself , and you may get dust come in . Therefore , we build special solutions such as integrated cooling with dust resistance and monitoring solutions .
We talk to the customer to find out what they expect for the coming five , 10 and 15 years . Then we design and build a solution which is upgradable and extendable for them .
How can organisations guarantee business-critical continuity , while also being able to scale for changing size and complexity ?
Business Continuity is extremely important because businesses cannot afford any disruption . However , the grid is failing more and more and we are increasingly installing solar panels and windmills as renewable energy sources .
While data centres are clean environments , retailers have warehouses where they need to reduce the amount of square metres because of the annual costs . IT is often placed in a corner of the warehouse where it ’ s dusty , where the temperature and humidity are variable . We are building solutions specifically for these kinds of environments , as well as providing maintenance and support for them . Again , it ’ s important to standardise .
We are also living in a time where electric cars are becoming more popular . When people come home from work between 5pm and 8pm , they are charging their cars . If there are 100 cars , that ’ s not a problem but when we are talking thousands , the grid in Europe is not ready for this .
Grid suppliers will ask retailers to provide support , whether via scalable UPS , installing solar panels
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