Three ways to run Telos: one PC, a LAN server, and the online account

A business system has to fit the place it runs in. A single shop with one counter and a distributor with a dozen desks do not need the same setup. Telos has three deployment shapes, and the rules inside them are the same. This post says plainly what each one is today.

One fact first: in every shape, the day-to-day work happens in the Telos desktop app, on Windows, macOS or Linux. The shapes differ in where the data and the business rules live.

One PC, no internet

In standalone mode the desktop app does everything itself. There is no server and no Java to install. The business rules run inside the app, and the database is an encrypted file on that computer (SQLCipher, AES-256).

• It needs no internet connection for sales, stock, purchasing, finance or reports.
• The licence is a signed token cached on the machine. If the computer stays offline, it keeps working through a grace period, 14 days by default.
• Backups go to a folder or a USB drive that you choose.
• One station: one person at the counter, one database.

This is the right fit for a single shop. It is also how many people start, because installing the app and opening it is all there is to do.

A server in your own shop

When more than one person types at the same time, you add a LAN server. It is one Linux machine on your own network, running the Telos API with Postgres, Redis and file storage in Docker, behind HTTPS. The desktop apps on your other computers connect to it and find it by themselves on the local network. The installer sets the server's firewall to answer only your private network.

• Hardware: we recommend Ubuntu Server LTS with four or more cores, 16 GB of memory, a 256 GB or larger SSD, a fixed address and a UPS. A smaller or different machine is untested.
• Installation: our team installs and updates it from a laptop over SSH, with one script. It builds for the server, generates its secrets, makes a certificate for your network, and takes a backup before every upgrade.
• Stations: the number of people who can work at once depends on your package: up to 5 on Business and up to 10 on Distribution.
• Backups: a nightly backup script ships with the server and keeps 14 days by default. We still ask every site to run a test restore, because a backup nobody has restored is only a hope.
• The rules are the same as in standalone mode, in their Java implementation, so a total does not change when you move up. How we keep both in step is a separate post.

The online account today

Online is where we are most careful with words. The online server is real, and it is also not a way to run your shop in a browser. Today an online account gives you:

• sign-up and a 30-day trial licence;
• your licence keys, and your billing;
• the desktop app to download;
• AI credits for Ask AI;
• cloud backup, on the packages that include it (Business and Distribution).

The ERP itself is not opened to online customers yet. The code for running several businesses on one online server exists, and the door to it is deliberately closed. When it opens we will say so here and on the deployment page, not before. If someone tells you that you can run Telos from a web browser today, they are ahead of us.

How to choose

Start from how many people work at the same moment:

1. One person, one computer: standalone. Plan on the Dukan package.
2. A shop with a counter, a store behind it and several staff: a LAN server, with the Business package.
3. A distributor with warehouse, sales, finance and projects: a LAN server and the Distribution package.
4. Several branches or companies: talk to us about the Group package, which is quoted case by case.

The plans page lists what each package includes and which shapes it supports. A package decides what you can use; a deployment shape decides where it runs. They are two separate choices.

Moving later

Changing package is a licence change: you get a new key and activate your devices with it, and your data stays. Moving from a single PC to a LAN server means installing the server, and we plan that with you rather than promise a one-click switch. The first step is the same in each case: download the app, start the 30-day trial, and work with your real products for a week.