For years, point-of-sales systems used a combination of custom-built hardware and relational databases to manage transactions data, and required a network connection to function properly. But when it came time for Doug Stewart and Greg Nacu to build their Quetzal POS system, designed specifically for fashion retailers, they decided to take a completely different approach - one that would make it easier for retailers to complete transactions and create a better shopping experience for their customers.

In their interview with The New Builders, Stewart and Nacu describe why an iPad is ideal for a POS platform (7:04); why the limitations of relational databases pushed them toward a non-relational database when it came time to build the Quetzal platform (9:22); how building on Apache CouchDB – and eventually the IBM Cloudant JSON doc store – enabled Quetzal to scale without having to worry about maintaining availability, monitoring and internal backups (15:26); and how IBM Cloudant’s data syncing capabilities enable Quetzal to function offline, even during network disruptions (19:41).

To find out more about how IBM Cloudant brings flexibility and scalability to the Quetzal POS platform, see the case study.

The New Builders podcast listeners can obtain special discounts for the upcoming CloudNativeCon (Seattle, Nov. 8-9) event. For a discounted CloudNativeCon pass, register here with code CNC16IBMDW.

You can find new episodes of The New Builders on developerWorks TV and SoundCloud. Find out more about IBM Cloud Data Services at IBM.biz/forbuilders. Contact hosts Doug Flora and Jim Young on Twitter (@DSFlora, @JW_Young) or email ([email protected], [email protected]).

The show’s music is provided by School for Robots. Check them out at schoolforrobots.bandcamp.com!