Architecture
Hybrid cloud-edge: the ship decides, the shore learns.
Most ship management software is a web application that happens to be used at sea. Full Ahead supports device queues for maintenance completions, stock movements and requisitions. Pending is not office acceptance.
Edge — onboard
Supported actions can be queued on the device
- Previously loaded data stays available in this browser.
- Device queues do not establish offline scoring or alert delivery
- Maintenance completions, stock movements and requisitions can be queued on this device offline. Other entries require a connection. A pending entry is not office acceptance.
- Readings and evidence capture require a connection; complete offline audit retrieval is not guaranteed
Cloud — shore
The fleet is consolidated where the decisions scale
- Cross-vessel benchmarking, spares forecasting and fleet-level audit readiness
- Regulatory intelligence and model calibration trained across the whole fleet, pushed back down
- Role-scoped access for owners, managers, superintendents and class or charterer reviewers
- Open REST API and signed webhooks for ERP, accounting and procurement systems
Between — link-aware sync
The link decides what moves, and when
- Maintenance completions, stock movements and requisitions held on board and sent when the link returns
- Batches sized to the measured round trip and the browser's own speed estimate
- Check the office record during your parallel review.
- Hash-chained ledger blocks so a synced record proves it was never edited after the fact
Why split it this way
Built for the link you actually have
Multi-orbit connectivity is improving fast, but coverage still drops in canals, fjords, high latitudes and alongside. An architecture that assumes broadband fails exactly when an inspector is on board.
Offline decision limits
A fatigue warning before a watch and an overdue-job block at sign-off are worthless three minutes later. Device queues do not establish that these decisions execute offline.
Bandwidth is spent, not wasted
Queued entries are small text records — a job completion, a stock movement or a requisition — so the maintenance record moves in kilobytes, in batches sized to the measured link.
Provenance survives the round trip
Records are hash-chained on creation. What arrives ashore verifies against what was written on board, which is the difference between a document and evidence.
What it means on board
| Situation | Cloud-only system | Full Ahead Maritime hybrid |
|---|---|---|
| PSC officer boards, link is down | Evidence unreachable until the antenna reacquires | Previously loaded data stays available in this browser. |
| Engineer closes a job at 03:00 mid-ocean | Form fails or silently loses the entry | Completion queued on the device; pending is not office acceptance |
| Fatigue risk detected before a watch | Alert depends on a shore round trip | Offline fatigue scoring and warning delivery are not established |
| Bandwidth is metered and expensive | Every page load costs data | Small text records move in batches sized to the link |
| Auditor questions a record's history | Trust the database | Hash-chained block verifies the record was never altered after creation |