Main focus of the plevsy+ops is the extension that it has: operations. It simply means the actual handling of the event as when the participants rush to the convention center and when the session are held and when they need accommodations. Operations environment is really different from a standard application environment. To explain this, figure two well-known software: Gmail and MS Excel. We refer to them as web applications and desktop applications respectively, which practically means one works over the internet with your web browser(IE of firefox or something like that) and the other one gets installed into your computer and works on its own.
You can read/send mails using gmail as long as you have a browser[ubiquitous] and an internet connection, its not dependent on any specific computer so that you can send an email from your work and read the replies from your home, its dead simple. On the other hand, Excel requires to be pre-installed and when you start to write a report and save it at your work, you cannot complete it at your home unless you have Excel pre-installed at your home too and you physically moved the file with a memory stick of some sort. These two environments with their capabilities and their limitations are very well-known to engineers and users alike. But that front desk, that’s different.
Problem
Its different from desktop applications because you need to access the data from multiple locations which may be the computers at the desk. It is usually required to have more than one computer at the desk so that you can serve more than one customer at a time, but no typical desktop application is capable of synchronizing the data across its different installations.
Desk is more like a web application in the sense that it requires to access the same data from different locations but it may have a major drawback: internet connection. Conferences are usually held in shiny hotels with crappy internet connections. Even if they have a great internet connection, things tend to go south in stressful situations and it is not easy to explain a paid customer that you don’t know where she will be staying because internet is down. So a web application sitting in a secure, cool data center is out of the option.
Solution?
With these limitations in mind, the simplest solution is making a web application and moving it from its data center to the front desk. Or under it to be precise. It is easy to install all of the web application requirements on a basic computer and physically put it under the desk. Then it is possible to connect other computers with a local network, so you get synced data as well as isolation from internet connection problems. This is a solution we successfully carried out over the years.
But not without a big problem: management of the data. It was no easy job to get the operations data from and to a central location for archiving or analytics. We struggled with ideas from simple scripts to full-blown data merging applications without any solid solution. Nevertheless, these tasks was for experienced technicians only in a sense that organizers need to employ at least one. So as any technical tool that requires you to use specialized workforce, it was heavy, thus hard to use.
We were lucky to not run into any but there was a huge risk too. That server under the desk is exposed to all kinds of physical damage. A kick, a fall or some electrical fluctuation is always near which may result in outages or data loss. And if your server is out, all of that desk computers are useless. This structure is called ‘single point of failure’ and never desired.
Decentralization
In a sense that a web application living under the desk is a centre, we propose a no-center solution. Every computer on the desk is capable of running software so we move the application onto them and let the data flow around. Every computer on desk is able to work independently as well as to work collaboratively. Using a unique infrastructure, plevsy+ops makes it possible to work over any number of computers without having a central server. If any computer fails, you can still work on other ones. It’s more like a synchronized desktop application that is able to work over any network. So you’re not limited in any desk or any number of computers. If you need to archive or analyze you can get your data to anywhere connected to internet. Or you can work in sync with distinct sites given that they have a network connection or both connected to internet. Or you don’t. You can get your data (and application) to your laptop or tablet and work offline, then synchronize it with other stations.
Conclusion
plevsy+ops is still in early stages but the infrastructure is already solid. As soon as we have something usable, all that reliable data and synchronization goodness will be in your service. Hang in there.
