From e26f4d6f242fbe9b4f1e7bcf1948d6909339a575 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Michael Mainguy <mike.mainguy@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2025 17:28:26 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Added drop 4

---
 .idea/workspace.xml |  24 +++++----
 RETAILCLOUDDROP4.md | 129 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 142 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/.idea/workspace.xml b/.idea/workspace.xml
index 869afdb..1b9ffc9 100644
--- a/.idea/workspace.xml
+++ b/.idea/workspace.xml
@@ -4,14 +4,7 @@
     <option name="autoReloadType" value="SELECTIVE" />
   </component>
   <component name="ChangeListManager">
-    <list default="true" id="dbf015c9-6bab-4a1d-a684-86aeb179d794" name="Changes" comment="reformatted README.md after initial repo setup fiasco...">
-      <change afterPath="$PROJECT_DIR$/RETAILCLOUDDROP0.md" afterDir="false" />
-      <change afterPath="$PROJECT_DIR$/RETAILCLOUDDROP1.md" afterDir="false" />
-      <change afterPath="$PROJECT_DIR$/RETAILCLOUDDROP2.md" afterDir="false" />
-      <change afterPath="$PROJECT_DIR$/RETAILCLOUDDROP3.md" afterDir="false" />
-      <change afterPath="$PROJECT_DIR$/RETAILEDGECLOUDOVERVIEW.md" afterDir="false" />
-      <change beforePath="$PROJECT_DIR$/.idea/workspace.xml" beforeDir="false" afterPath="$PROJECT_DIR$/.idea/workspace.xml" afterDir="false" />
-    </list>
+    <list default="true" id="dbf015c9-6bab-4a1d-a684-86aeb179d794" name="Changes" comment="started outline for future." />
     <option name="SHOW_DIALOG" value="false" />
     <option name="HIGHLIGHT_CONFLICTS" value="true" />
     <option name="HIGHLIGHT_NON_ACTIVE_CHANGELIST" value="false" />
@@ -64,7 +57,7 @@
       <updated>1753029706563</updated>
       <workItem from="1753029707902" duration="14900000" />
       <workItem from="1753391066003" duration="37000" />
-      <workItem from="1753391114470" duration="970000" />
+      <workItem from="1753391114470" duration="1311000" />
     </task>
     <task id="LOCAL-00001" summary="Updated to reflect current nodejs setup for container template.">
       <option name="closed" value="true" />
@@ -106,7 +99,15 @@
       <option name="project" value="LOCAL" />
       <updated>1753119737522</updated>
     </task>
-    <option name="localTasksCounter" value="6" />
+    <task id="LOCAL-00006" summary="started outline for future.">
+      <option name="closed" value="true" />
+      <created>1753392186689</created>
+      <option name="number" value="00006" />
+      <option name="presentableId" value="LOCAL-00006" />
+      <option name="project" value="LOCAL" />
+      <updated>1753392186689</updated>
+    </task>
+    <option name="localTasksCounter" value="7" />
     <servers />
   </component>
   <component name="TypeScriptGeneratedFilesManager">
@@ -129,6 +130,7 @@
     <MESSAGE value="changed remote to see if it works." />
     <MESSAGE value="Whoops" />
     <MESSAGE value="reformatted README.md after initial repo setup fiasco..." />
-    <option name="LAST_COMMIT_MESSAGE" value="reformatted README.md after initial repo setup fiasco..." />
+    <MESSAGE value="started outline for future." />
+    <option name="LAST_COMMIT_MESSAGE" value="started outline for future." />
   </component>
 </project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/RETAILCLOUDDROP4.md b/RETAILCLOUDDROP4.md
index e69de29..fbf04e9 100644
--- a/RETAILCLOUDDROP4.md
+++ b/RETAILCLOUDDROP4.md
@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+**Drop 4 – Edge Workloads That Win Hearts (and Wallets)**
+*Series: “Edge Renaissance—putting compute (and the customer) back where they belong.”*
+
+---
+
+### ☕ Executive espresso (60‑second read)
+
+* **Move what customers *feel*.** Live inventory badges, instant BOPIS promises, zero‑lag self‑checkout, “we saw you needed help” alerts—these are edge wins, not cloud tricks.
+* **Inference beats bandwidth.** Run vision AI and replenishment logic on‑site; sync only insights, not 4K video.
+* **Start with two workloads:** one that boosts revenue (conversion, AOV) and one that cuts friction (queue time, NPS). Prove value fast, then expand.
+
+> **Bottom line:** The closet cluster isn’t there for vanity metrics; it’s the engine for customer‑obsessed moments your competitors can’t match at WAN speeds.
+
+---
+
+## 1️⃣ The three buckets of edge value
+
+| Bucket            | Customer moment                                   | KPI it moves               | Typical edge workload                   |
+| ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------- | --------------------------------------- |
+| **Sell faster**   | PDP shows “2 left—aisle 7” in real time           | Conversion %, AOV          | Live inventory API, dynamic promos      |
+| **Serve smarter** | Associate gets a “need help?” ping from vision AI | NPS / CSAT, queue length   | Vision analytics, foot‑traffic heatmaps |
+| **Stay open**     | WAN dies, kiosks & POS keep humming               | Lost sales avoided, uptime | Offline‑capable POS, local auth/caching |
+
+---
+
+## 2️⃣ Workloads to push down first (and why)
+
+```
+1. Live inventory & BOPIS promises
+   • Pain: Cloud round-trips add 100+ ms → stale or missing stock data.
+   • Edge fix: Containerized /inventory API next to the ERP sync process.
+   • KPI: +X% PDP click‑to-cart, lower cancellations.
+
+2. Vision AI (shrink, planogram, queue detection)
+   • Pain: Streaming 4K video to cloud = $$$ + latency.
+   • Edge fix: GPU or CPU inference on-node; send events only.
+   • KPI: Fewer walkouts, faster line opens, compliance hits.
+
+3. Dynamic pricing / digital signage
+   • Pain: Central scheduler pushes daily; no real‑time react.
+   • Edge fix: WASM function reads local demand + margin rules.
+   • KPI: Margin lift, sell‑through on perishable items.
+
+4. BOPIS / ship-from-store orchestration
+   • Pain: Picker waits on distant APIs; SLA slips.
+   • Edge fix: Local microservice allocates orders, talks to robots.
+   • KPI: SLA hit rate, pick time, labor cost.
+
+5. AR/3D asset serving in-store Wi‑Fi
+   • Pain: Heavy textures → slow over WAN/CDN.
+   • Edge fix: Cache on Ceph; deliver from 50 feet away.
+   • KPI: Engagement time, demo-to-purchase rate.
+```
+
+---
+
+## 3️⃣ Customer-first framing for each workload
+
+| Customer pain they notice         | Edge pattern that fixes it                     | Tech blocks on Proxmox       |
+| --------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------- |
+| “Why is pickup 2 hours away?”     | Local promise engine using fresh stock feed    | LXC API svc + Ceph queue     |
+| “This kiosk is frozen…again”      | Offline-first UI + local auth/cache            | Nginx cache + SQLite replica |
+| “No associate when I need one”    | Vision AI triggers help alerts                 | CUDA/ROCm container + MQTT   |
+| “Page keeps spinning on my phone” | In‑store CDN for JS/images/API                 | Varnish + WASM workers       |
+| “Price on sign ≠ price in app”    | Signage & app both hit same local rules engine | Shared container, REST API   |
+
+---
+
+## 4️⃣ How to choose *your* first two
+
+Create a quick 2×2:
+
+```
+               ↑ Revenue impact
+               |
+         (A)   |    (B)
+               |
+Implementation |----------------→ Ease / Speed to deploy
+       effort  |
+         (C)   |    (D)
+               |
+```
+
+* **A:** Big money, easy win → do now
+* **B:** Big money, harder → start POC in parallel
+* **C/D:** Low money → bundle with others or defer
+
+Most retailers land “/inventory API cache” in A and “vision AI queue detection” in B.
+
+---
+
+## 5️⃣ Pattern: inference local, learning central
+
+1. **Train centrally** (cloud GPUs, big data lake).
+2. **Package model** (ONNX/TensorRT) and ship to stores via GitOps.
+3. **Infer at the edge** (no raw data exfil).
+4. **Return features/metrics only** for future re‑training.
+
+Same principle works for recommendation engines, fraud checks, demand forecasting.
+
+---
+
+## 6️⃣ Guardrails & governance
+
+* **Version control everything**: models, edge functions, Varnish configs—Git is the source of truth.
+* **Secret management**: Use Vault/Sealed Secrets; no API keys in containers.
+* **Observability**: Batch logs to central Loki/Elastic; alert on drift (latency, miss rates).
+* **Compliance**: Keep PII local where possible; roll‑ups only leave the site.
+
+---
+
+## 7️⃣ This week’s action list
+
+1. **Baseline latency & KPIs** for target workloads (e.g., PDP → add‑to‑cart time, queue length).
+2. **Pick 2 workloads**: one revenue, one experience. Write a 1‑pager each: pain → edge fix → KPI.
+3. **Build thin slices** on the pilot cluster:
+
+   * `/inventory` API cache container
+   * Small Varnish edge function injecting a promo
+4. **Instrument results** (TTFB, conversion lift, queue minutes, etc.).
+5. **Socialize wins** with a single chart: “100 ms faster → +X% revenue” or “0 outages during WAN blip.”
+
+---
+
+### Next up ➡️ **Drop 5 – Governance at the Edge: Security, Compliance, Resilience**
+
+We’ll tackle the scary stuff: patching 500 closets, PCI scope, cert rotation, and what happens when a node dies at 2 AM.
+
+*Stay subscribed—your edge is about to get audited.*