A cloud
kitchen or a digital restaurant is a fast growing trend that has quickly
established itself as a formidable restaurant format. Internet-first
restaurants are stepping on the gas and companies such as Zomato, Swiggy and Fresh
Menu have already started grabbing a slice of this fast-growing sector.
So what
is cloud kitchen a.k.a Internet-first restaurant?
A cloud kitchen is basically a restaurant kitchen
that accepts incoming orders only through online ordering systems and offers no
dine-in facility. They just have a central kitchen that delivers food at
customer’s doorsteps.
The primary source of revenue for these internet
restaurants is through the various food ordering platforms, such as Swiggy, Food
Panda, Zomato, etc. Critical to their business model is a Point of Sales
software that accepts orders from multiple sources.
Food,
at the click of a button
Digital technologies are reshaping our daily
experiences as consumers and businesses, and these cloud kitchens are no
exception. They have the potential to redefine the contours of the restaurant
business. For example, take Swiggy, the trending food delivery app that has its
roots in Bengaluru. It was the first among the crowd in the cut throat market to
venture cloud kitchen in India. Swiggy has set up ‘The Bowl Company’ in
Bengaluru joining hands with the popular restaurateurs to offer a wide selection
where the restaurant need not have a physical presence.
Following this, Zomato has opened its first cloud
kitchen in the suburb of Delhi, Dwarka as a pilot for its new project, Zomato
Infrastructure Services, in which they provide their partner restaurateurs with
300 square feet of space and kitchen equipment. So, an aspiring chef has to
just walk in and cook on gas while Zomato takes care of the rest. This could be
a great opportunity for budding chefs and entrepreneurs.
The
secret sauce!
Inexpensive access to pervasive computing power via
cloud and mobile technologies is the secret sauce. Market reports indicate that
Swiggy’s technology stack comprises of Amazon (EC2, RDS, Cloudfront and
Route53) while Zomato’s technology stack also includes Amazon Route53. With cloud and mobile technology facilitating
online ordering, cloud kitchens suddenly seem like the only rational thing to
do to manage the high rentals and poor margins in the F&B industry.
Why is
this restaurant stuff important for my business?
Just as cloud and mobile technologies are
redefining a traditional industry, the ramifications are just as huge for any
other business. It’s no longer about “technology has no role to play in my
business”. Chances are, if you don’t know how technology can impact your
business, your competitor already does.
With a plethora of services provided by cloud, every
business can benefit - from SMBs to large enterprises; from education to
hospitality. The cloud is like this huge
switchboard where anyone can plug in and use it when they want to but they
don’t have to carry the switchboard, they just use the “service”. Gone are the
days of expensive, complex IT infrastructure which deterred many businesses
from taking advantage of technology.
The cloud allows you to focus on what you do best -
run your business. You can move from being a reactive business to a proactive
business that offers transformational products and services. The cloud is also
highly resilient, especially during these trying times.
For instance, during an unprecedented natural
disaster like Cyclone Vardha, which shut down many businesses, or even during a watershed day like Flipkart’s Big Billion Day, the cloud has played
knight in shining armor through its various features like instant
scalability, disaster recovery, backup & restore and many more. A survey
says 60% of SMBs pull the plug after a disaster but with the advent of cloud
technology, they could surely turn the tables and cope up equally with large
businesses in this uphill battle.
Your
technology GPS
At Quadra, we can help you plan and prioritize your
cloud journey by helping you formulate well defined business objectives, along
with a business and risk analysis that considers multiple dimensions such as
long term cost savings; data criticality, security and privacy concerns; audit
and assurance; and regulatory norms, right down to service provider agreement
review.
Our job is simple – we put the cloud to work for your business, and
free you from the complexity of choosing and managing multiple vendors. We aim
to let you do what you do best – run your business!