Anonymous, but very real
This organization is a publicly traded Fortune 500 global restaurant chain, operating globally with annual revenue in the tens of billions.
In this document, we’ll share the authentic detail of the customer’s situation and challenges, and how they’re using Spectro Cloud Palette for their edge Kubernetes infrastructure.
The customer’s internal policy prohibits named public references, but we’ve worked closely with their team, and the results you’ll read below are real.
At a glance
- Industry: Multi‑unit restaurant / quick‑service retail
- Store footprint: Tens of thousands of locations across every continent
- Objective: Modernize edge compute at scale, bringing next‑generation commerce and guest experience to every store
- Key use cases: Next‑generation point‑of‑sale, loyalty, mobile ordering, digital signage, store analytics
- Headline outcomes: 10× rollout acceleration, more than $4 million in projected three‑year opex savings, unified VM‑and‑container operations, always‑on guest experience
The challenge: scaling digital retail beyond legacy limits
Digital engagement is the number‑one driver of guest loyalty for this global restaurant chain, but its legacy edge stack — built on OpenStack and Platform9 — had stalled.
After three years of hard work, the team had activated fewer than four thousand stores, limited by costly truck rolls, fragile Day 2 operations and poor fleet visibility.
Meanwhile a new commerce platform was being rolled out, set to touch every order, payment and interaction, providing the perfect opportunity for a reset.
The chain’s leadership set out to find an edge computing foundation that could:
- Scale from thousands to tens of thousands of clusters with minimal incremental effort.
- Run legacy VMs and modern cloud‑native containers side by side.
- Keep critical services such as PoS running locally during WAN outages.
- Deliver zero‑touch network boot provisioning and policy‑driven Day 2 operations to reduce manual toil.
- Cut the cost per store to a sustainable level.
Implementation journey
The program moved quickly but methodically. A rigorous request for information (RFI) process captured more than forty technical and operational criteria, pitting Palette against a long list of competitors, including Rancher.
An eight‑week hands‑on proof of concept (PoC) proved scale, security and mixed VM‑and‑container workloads under live network conditions, alongside our partners at AWS and CDW. A limited production pilot followed, putting zero‑touch clusters into revenue‑generating stores in three weeks.
With a three-year contract signed, rollout is well underway. Deployment is accelerating across the global estate toward a five‑digit store count within months.
Why Spectro Cloud came out on top
Spectro Cloud Palette satisfied every requirement and more. Unified VM and Kubernetes support let the chain modernize at its own pace. A decentralized, edge‑first architecture ensured transactions continued even when the network failed.
Zero‑touch provisioning removed the pain of on‑site configuration, while an API‑first operating model gave central teams full lifecycle control.
Palette had also proven hyperscale performance — see how we scaled to 10 000 clusters without missing a beat.
A focused proof of concept validated secure disk encryption, two‑node HA clusters and full offline resiliency, displacing the incumbent OpenStack service and outperforming other Kubernetes management products on functionality and cost.
Change management in the spotlight
Like many enterprises, this chain had a mixture of greenfield and brownfield sites, and needed any switchover to be seamless.
With Palette, greenfield rollout devices are network-booted via iPXE. All provisioning is remote and automated, eliminating the need for local configuration.
In a brownfield scenario, existing hardware can be reprovisioned through the same iPXE-driven process, enabling reuse without requiring on-site flashing or imaging, and avoiding hardware waste.
Once powered and connected to the network, store devices are automatically enrolled and provisioned through Palette over a secure channel.
The initial rollout tests during the pilot showed no cutover time or observability loss, allowing the chain to modernize each store without impacting ongoing operations or customer experience.
Business impact that resonates with every multi‑unit brand
Switching to Spectro Cloud set the chain on a path to activate ten times more stores per year than before, unlocking new revenue streams and protecting market share.
Zero‑touch provisioning and remote operations removed the $1,000‑plus truck roll previously required for every site, contributing to more than $4 million in projected opex savings over the next three years — capital now redirected toward guest‑experience innovation.
Beyond the headline numbers, the platform delivers:
- Stronger loyalty: Faster, more reliable digital experiences drive app adoption, minimize waiting and encourage repeat visits.
- Revenue protection: Palette’s decentralized architecture means local clusters keep transactions running even during WAN interruptions, safeguarding sales and customer satisfaction.
- Faster innovation: Standardized Kubernetes at the edge shrinks time‑to‑market for new services and app experiences from months to days.
What this means for you
Palette is proven to deliver a secure, resilient and cost‑effective edge Kubernetes platform at the very highest end of retail scale. Whether you operate coffee shops, convenience stores, fuel stations or apparel outlets, the lesson is clear:
- Always‑on service: Palette’s decentralized model keeps transactions flowing even when the internet does not.
- Modernize at your pace: Run VMs today, containers tomorrow — without forklift migrations.
- Roll out faster than competitors: Network‑boot provisioning and fleet‑wide policy enforcement shrink go‑live timelines from quarters to weeks.
- Reduce risk and cost: Secure‑by‑design images, TPM support and automated Day 2 operations drive down both exposure and opex.
- Scale without limits: From hundreds to tens of thousands of sites, Palette has already shown the ceiling is higher than most retailers will ever need.
Looking ahead
The global restaurant chain is now expanding its Palette edge Kubernetes foundation to its international markets, ultimately with a goal to reach 40,000 sites, with unified application delivery, observability, and Day 2 operations across all store types, and centralized planning for platform, network, and security teams.
Along the way, it’s free to experiment with new use cases like AI‑assisted ordering, real‑time inventory and computer‑vision analytics — each delivered as a Kubernetes workload managed by Spectro Cloud. Those ambitions mirror what we hear from restaurant, QSR and franchise customers everywhere.
Next steps
Ready to see how Spectro Cloud could transform your edge estate? Book a demo or download our edge Kubernetes checklist and start planning your journey today.
