They call their "cloud": Cloud-Fil-A. Par excellence.
We will have an order of magnitude more cloud datacenters than AWS! :)
Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A
131–140 of 401 posts
Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A
#132We think of our Edge Computing environment as a “micro private cloud” We call local clouds "fogs."
Interesting - why? (this is Caleb, one of the authors and lead SRE for the project)
Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A
#133Chickfila is very much a top-to-bottom ownership company. They own every step of the process in the cooking, from the machines, to servicing, to the logistics behind maintenance. It's really exciting to see a company like this just want to own everything they do, and not reach out for 3rd party tools and SaaS and such.
They don't own everything, their logistics and servicing is through Trimark, granted many of those employees there only work on Chick-fil-a. But yeah Chickfila has always been one of the most high tech restaurant chains out there, its not common knowledge either. They have one of the most unique kitchen setups in the industry as well.
Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A
#134Having worked with some of CFA's competition and comparing their IoT architectures, I'd say these guys have their heads on straight. Kudos to them.
Thanks! We appreciate the compliment! :)
Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A
#135I work in midtown NYC near a Chick-fil-a location. Used to be a line down the block, went with a friend yesterday thinking we caught the line at a short time but turns out they were using smiley employees with ipads coordinating orders and that they were serving arguably more people than before. Very impressed with how seamlessly they've integrated tech in their brick and mortars in contrast with the countless "cashl…
They've been doing this for several years at least (employees taking orders of people in line). I think since before the iPad was released.
For sure. Meant it more as a response to contents of the article that they've managed to break down their business processes into a subset of (dare I say) microservices that have allowed them to pinpoint weaknesses in efficiency and improve upon them - ie. the waffle fries example mentioned.
Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never been to a retail establishment with anything close to the credit card speed of CFA. The cashier can swipe and grab receipt in one smooth and quick motion. It's so fast you feel like it's broken or slight of hand. I wonder how they do it or why other companies can't or don't do it. CFA stores are so much busier than even an average McDonald's, maybe the efficiency gains are just worth more. No idea how they…
The one place where CFA IT seems to fall down is at the drive-through. I used to be able to pay for my order with the order taker on his/her iPad using my Apple Watch. For the last six months or so, I have to go all the way to the pick-up window, and they have to get a manager to unplug a card swipe terminal from the front counter, plug it in near the window, log in to the terminal, and then hang the actual terminal…
I'd send that feedback through our feedback form... our product teams definitely need to hear that; https://www.chick-fil-a.com/Customer-Service/Contact
Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A
#137Can anyone explain what the actual problem is they're solving using 'edge computing'? I get the feeling this is a completely unnecessary use of technology.
Here's the abbreviated reason;
Internet connectivity for restaurants stink.
So we put our compute at the edge.
Trust me... as an SRE I would much prefer we shove it in the cloud and call it a day, but alas... no such luck.
Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chik-Fil-A is not an arbiter of LGBTQ rights. Their small 6-figure donations to organizations that focus on other issues do very little in the grand scheme of things. Do you really think Chik-Fil-A is directly causing more suffering by donating to a few charities in amounts this small than by raising in captivity and then killing billions of chickens? I see no way to reasonably argue that.
Chick-Fil-A is just the service provider, if not for Chick-Fil-A people would get their chicken elsewhere. If they were raised in a place that felt less like captivity, that would probably be worse for the environment, in terms of using more natural resources per pound of chicken produced. There are trade-offs to everything. Chick-Fil-A isn't really in the meat business, they're in the restaurant business, and given…
You may well already know this, but the separate words for meat and animal are likely because of the Normans; the richer French speakers cooked and ate the animals, so they got French names; the poorer "English" raised the animals and called them by their English/Germanic names.
We do have a word with a French root for chicken, by the way: poultry. As to why the separate name didn't catch on, I can only speculate that it's because chicken are cheap to keep and so the English may have eaten them themselves.
Not all languages have separate words for meat - German perhaps being the most famous. It's slightly disconcerting to walk around a supermarket and see schweinefleisch being advertised.
Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, me too, but at least I wasn't writing Medium articles about how cool it was that I was generating revenue to be funneled directly into conversion therapy youth camps.
This person[0] seems to have found a way of engaging the CEO in dialog. I, personally, think this is the best way of discussing differences. [0] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/shane-l-windmeyer/dan-cathy-c...
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Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm curious about Nordstrom, I know nothing of their infrastructure.
To add to the curiosity, how is Nordstrom doing anyway, compared to other mall-type retail? I'm wondering if this forward-thinking in tech is allowing them to successfully fight "new" ecommerce such as Amazon
Nordstrom is doing pretty well for their online stores. I have to order things there for family every so often