You've probably heard a lot about "the Cloud" lately, and you might be wondering if it is something you should utilize in the running of your restaurant.

While it's true that some restaurants are using Cloud applications such as web-based POS, the truth is this technology may not be the right choice for all aspects of your business, or for every type of restaurant.

While you may get to make a lower up-front investment when you move some of your business into the Cloud, you have to accept that with a cheaper cost may come less predictable performance. Sure, you're not shelling out the cost of licensing, managing and maintaining the software, but you're also now sending information across thousands of miles of fiber and servers rather than just a 100 foot cable.

So what should you do? The simple solution is to analyze your staff and business. Restaurant POS applications in the Cloud are updated by the people who offer it, which means your staff may not know about a change in the system until it's right in front of them. Is your staff tech-savvy enough to adapt quickly? Also, does your menu or personnel information change often? If so, it may be best to keep these aspects of your business out of the Cloud, since you have a limited ability to customize Cloud POS applications.

However, inventory management and other aspects of your business that tend to stay stable may be great candidates for the Cloud.

The bottom line is you want to make a slow transition to web-based POS applications, don't try to put all of your business into the cloud all at once.

Our advice: Take it slowly and see how it works for you. To learn more, read our blog post How to Migrate (carefully) to Cloud POS.