When is it worth running RPM on a private cluster?
For most businesses, not yet, and maybe never. The shared server is where RPM is meant to be run: every screen, every feature and the same security, for $99 a month per company once your six free months are up. A private cluster is a different kind of decision. It isn't about getting more of RPM. It is about owning more of the decisions around it: where it runs, how much room it has, when it changes, and how far it is shaped around you. This post is about knowing when that day has come, so it doesn't come as a surprise.
The shared server is the whole system
It is worth saying plainly, because "shared" can sound like "smaller". It isn't. On the shared server you get:
- All of RPM. Quotes, orders, invoicing, purchasing, stock, stock takes, accounts, dashboards, Scout, reports, import and export: the same software a private cluster runs, built from the same release.
- The same protection. Every company's records are kept to that company. Sign-in has two-factor, every change is recorded in the history, and your data can be taken out in full whenever you like.
- Nothing to look after. We run it, watch it and update it. You open the browser and work.
That is why we tell new customers to start there and stay there. A business can run on the shared server for years and never miss anything. If you are on it today, you are on the right plan.
What a private cluster changes
A private cluster is RPM on servers rented for your business alone, with its own database. It runs exactly the same software. What changes is who the surroundings belong to.
Where your data lives
On a private cluster, your database sits on servers that hold nobody else's. For most businesses that is a detail. For some, it is a question that starts to come up: from a bank, an auditor, a large customer's supplier questionnaire, or an industry that wants to know exactly where its records are kept and who else is on the machine. "Our own servers, our own database" is a short answer to a long question.
Room that is yours alone
The cluster is sized to your users and your workload, and the size can change as you do. If you are planning to double your branches, bring in a warehouse team, or run heavy reporting at month end, the capacity is there because you set it, and you can add to it before you need it rather than after.
Changes on your timetable
On the shared server everyone moves to a new release together, and that is part of what keeps it simple. On a private cluster, the timing of an update can be agreed with you: after your stock take, not during it; after year end, not in the middle of it. Businesses with a busy season tend to value that more than they expect.
Shaped further around how you work
Every screen, field and rule in RPM can be adapted, and that is true on either plan. A private cluster leaves more room for it: changes that only make sense for your business, links to your own systems, and documents and workflows built for one way of working, without needing to suit anyone else.
Signs you are getting close
None of these means you should move. Together, they are worth a conversation:
- You have stopped thinking of RPM as software and started thinking of it as the business. Everything runs through it, and a day without it is a day you can't trade.
- Someone outside the business has asked where your data is kept, and you would like a more specific answer than "with our provider".
- You are adding branches and users faster than you planned. Growth is easier to make room for in advance.
- You have a list of things you would change about how RPM fits your trade, and the list keeps getting longer.
- Your calendar has dates that nothing should touch: a stock take, a year end, a season. You would like the system's changes to fit around them.
- You want another system to talk to RPM, a website, a warehouse tool or a partner's software, and you would like that link to be part of your own setup.
If none of these sounds like you, that is a good sign: the shared server is doing its job, and there is nothing to decide.
Getting comfortable is a good thing. Being caught out isn't
The easiest time to plan a move is when nothing is forcing it. Businesses that move in a hurry usually do it because of a deadline someone else set: a contract, an audit, an acquisition. The ones that move calmly have usually thought about it a year earlier, decided "not yet", and known what would change their mind.
So, if RPM is running well for you on the shared server, keep going. It is the plan we recommend and the one most of our customers will stay on. Just keep a note somewhere of the questions above, and look at it once a year.
Your data goes with you either way. Everything you hold on the shared server can be exported, and a private cluster starts from the same records, so moving later never means starting again.
Talk to us when you're ready
A private cluster is quoted for each business, because it depends on your users, your data and what you want shaped around you. When the questions above start to sound familiar, ask us for a quote and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth it yet. Until then, start free on the shared server: six months on us, and every feature from the first day.