
Pub, Club & Venue IT Support Adelaide
When you trade every day, your technology can't have a day off.
Tills, the kitchen, the gaming room, the bottle shop — when the tech stops, trade stops. You shouldn't have to fear that a server upgrade means lost revenue, or that one cyber incident could take your venue offline mid-service. Otaris takes IT and cybersecurity completely off your plate, and keeps your venue trading.
In short
What does IT support for a pub, club or licensed venue include?
Otaris provides managed IT support and cyber security for hospitality venues in Adelaide — pubs, restaurants, cafes and clubs. We support POS systems including H&L, integrated EFTPOS, guest Wi-Fi and rostering tools like Deputy, and keep venues trading seven days with Essential Eight security behind the scenes. Plans start at $139 per user per month. Adelaide-based since 2006.
Saturday-night POS · card data · guest Wi-Fi
Eight questions to ask the IT provider you already have
Hospitality revenue cannot be recovered later. A manufacturer who loses four hours makes it up on Tuesday; a venue that loses four hours on a Saturday night loses that money permanently, and the room remembers. Which means in a venue, availability is not an IT concern — it is the P&L.
So don't take our word for anything. These eight questions come straight from the Essential Eight — the standard published by the Australian Signals Directorate, which we didn't write and don't own. Each one can only be answered with a document. Ask them, and notice which answers arrive as a report and which arrive as a reassurance.
- 01
Patch applications
The POS and booking software — which were patched last month, and did the terminals get done or only the back office?
A real answer looks like: A dated patch report listing terminals and back office separately.
- 02
Patch operating systems
The POS terminals and the back-office PC — how many are on an unsupported version of Windows?
A real answer looks like: A device list with OS build numbers and end-of-support dates for every terminal.
- 03
Multi-factor authentication
Who can get into the POS back end or the business banking from home with only a password?
A real answer looks like: A conditional access report listing every account, its factor, and every exclusion by name.
- 04
Restrict admin privileges
Which staff can void or refund a transaction, who can grant that right, and when was that list last reviewed?
A real answer looks like: A named list of who holds void and refund rights, with a review date.
- 05
Application control
A duty manager installs a free music streaming app on the back-office PC. Does it run?
A real answer looks like: The application control policy, its enforcement mode, and last month's blocked-execution log.
- 06
Restrict Office macros
The roster and wage-cost workbook runs on macros. What permits it and blocks an emailed one?
A real answer looks like: The macro policy showing default-block, with the roster file's trusted location documented.
- 07
User application hardening
The back-office PC does banking and browsing on the same machine. What has been hardened on that browser?
A real answer looks like: The hardening baseline applied to the back-office machine specifically.
- 08
Regular backups
If the POS database went at 6pm on a Friday, when did you last prove you could restore it, and how long did the test take?
A real answer looks like: A restore test report with a date and a measured duration.
And one more, just for your industry
Is the guest Wi-Fi genuinely separated from the POS and the office network — and can you show me the configuration that proves it rather than telling me it is?
A real answer looks like: A network diagram plus the VLAN and firewall configuration that enforces the separation.
Asked them? Here's what to do with the answers.
A provider doing the work sends a report. One who isn't sends a sentence. If the answers came back vague, that is itself an answer — and you now know which questions to ask again in writing.
To check the same ground against the government standard yourself, the scorecard further down this page takes about two minutes. You keep the result, and there is no form to fill in.
Or ask us — we do this every week.
We know what's really at stake in a venue
In hospitality, technology isn't a back-office convenience — it's the business. The moment your point-of-sale, kitchen or gaming systems go down, you're turning customers away and losing trade you can't get back. And the demands never stop: long hours, seven days a week, often 365 days a year.
On top of uptime sits a real and growing security problem. Hospitality is now a prime ransomware target — attackers know venues can't afford to stop. Australian venues have been hit hard: over a million pub and club patrons had their sign-in data exposed through a third-party IT provider, and hospitality groups have been held to ransom with staff and customer data stolen. Add card-payment rules like PCI DSS — where one operator was fined $180,000 for storing card data incorrectly — and the stakes are clear.
You shouldn't have to be your own IT department on top of running a venue. That's where we come in.
“We take IT completely off your plate — so the tills keep ringing and the kitchen keeps cooking.”
The IT challenges we solve for venues
Uptime that can't fail
When your POS or systems drop, so does trade. We engineer your environment for resilience — with backups, failover and proactive monitoring — and we've delivered 99.99% uptime for a 365-day venue: no more than about 53 minutes offline across a whole year.
Upgrades without losing a trading hour
The fear with any upgrade is that “doing the work” means the tills go quiet. We plan migrations around your quiet periods and move systems across with no unscheduled downtime — turning a feared disruption into a non-event.
Protecting customer & member data
Sign-in data, member details and payment information are exactly what attackers want — and third-party providers have been the weak point in major venue breaches. We lock down where that data lives and who can reach it, and we back it up so you can recover fast.
Ransomware aimed at venues
Attackers target hospitality precisely because you can't afford to stop. We deploy modern endpoint protection and application whitelisting, and keep on-site and off-site backups so you can be back trading in hours — without paying a cent to criminals.
Card payments & PCI compliance
Card data carries strict obligations, and getting it wrong is costly. We help keep your payment environment secure and aligned to the standards expected of a venue.
Complex venue networks
POS, gaming, membership, Wi-Fi, CCTV, comms and back office all run over your network at once. We design and manage it as one reliable, secure, segmented system — with failover so a dropped internet link doesn't stop service.
Getting your venue sorted is simple
Schedule a call
Talk to a real person who understands how venues run. No sales pitch — just a conversation about what's working and what's putting your trade at risk.
We assess your IT and build a roadmap
We review your whole environment — POS, network, security and backups — check you against the Essential Eight, find the gaps, and give you a clear plan that protects the trading day. No jargon, no hidden costs.
We manage everything, so you can run your venue
From 24/7 monitoring and cybersecurity to everyday support, we become the IT team your venue has always needed — and we plan ahead so hardware never gets left to fail.
Everything your venue needs, under one trusted partner
Resilient infrastructure
On-site, cloud or a private cloud where it's the right call, engineered for uptime.
No-downtime migrations & refreshes
Server and system upgrades planned around your trade, with no unscheduled disruption.
Cybersecurity & Essential Eight uplift
Application whitelisting, MFA and threat monitoring across every device.
On-site & off-site backups
Tested recovery so a fault, breach or site event can't take you offline for long.
Venue networks & failover
POS, gaming, Wi-Fi and comms on one secure network, with 4G backup.
POS & venue software support
We support the point-of-sale and venue software your venue runs on — including H&L — keeping them secure, available and integrated with the rest of your systems.
Running a hotel or serviced apartments as well? See how we support accommodation.
Hospitality systems we support
Otaris supports the systems Adelaide venues trade on every day — proven in production at venues like Roulettes Tavern, an Otaris client since 2006.
- POS systems (H&L)
- Integrated EFTPOS
- Guest Wi-Fi
- Deputy rostering
- Square
- Microsoft 365
A local team venues trust
Otaris has been looking after Australian businesses since 2006 — that's 20+ years in IT. We're Adelaide-based with Australia-wide coverage, and we explain everything in plain language. You'll never be handed off to an overseas call centre.

Client story — Roulettes Tavern & PALS, Parafield Airport (14 users · since 2006)
Roulettes Tavern and PALS — a full hospitality venue and attached bottle shop trading 365 days a year at Parafield Airport — have trusted Otaris for over 20 years. When the server running their H&L point-of-sale and remote desktop reached end of life, the owners' real worry wasn't the hardware — it was downtime. A venue that trades every day can't afford to go quiet. We built them a brand-new HP Enterprise server, run as an on-site private cloud on VMware, and migrated the whole environment across one machine at a time during a quiet window — with no unscheduled downtime. The tills kept ringing throughout.
The venue now runs with on-site and off-site backups, a refreshed network with 4G failover, Duo MFA and ThreatLocker — delivering 99.99% uptime, no more than about 53 minutes offline in a year.
Read the Roulettes Tavern & PALS case study- 20+ years in IT
- 20-year venue partnership
- 99.99% uptime delivered
- No-downtime server migration
- Adelaide-based
- Essential Eight aligned
Imagine technology that just keeps your venue running
Picture a venue where the tills always ring, the kitchen never waits on a system, and the bottle shop keeps selling — every day of the year. Upgrades happen quietly in the background without costing you a single hour of trade. Your customer and member data is protected, your network is reliable, and if anything ever goes wrong, you're back trading fast.
That's the difference between worrying about IT and having a partner who's already handled it.
“Strengthening your digital confidence.”
Insights for hospitality
What we get asked most often by hospitality businesses, answered plainly.
- 2 min
What should a venue expect from out-of-hours IT support?
Cover during trading, not during office hours. A support agreement that ends at five covers the hours you are least busy.
Read the article - 6 min
How should a venue set up guest Wi-Fi safely?
On a completely separate network that cannot reach your point of sale or back office. Shared Wi-Fi is a route from the car park to your payments.
Read the article - 2 min
What should a venue do after a malware incident?
Contain, recover, then rebuild to a standard rather than back to what you had. Restoring the same setup restores the same exposure.
Read the article - 6 min
How should a multi-venue hospitality operator run its IT?
One identity, consistent equipment at every venue, and reporting that consolidates without anyone assembling it by hand each week.
Read the article - 2 min
Where can a hospitality venue use AI?
Rosters, menus, marketing copy and responding to reviews. Not automated replies to complaints, where a wrong tone costs more than time.
Read the article - 6 min
What happens when a venue's point of sale goes down?
Trading stops unless it was planned for. Failover, offline mode and a written fallback are the three answers, and all need setting up first.
Read the article
Solutions for your industry
The services we most often deploy for hospitality.
- Managed
Infrastructure & Cloud Management
Private cloud on AWS and Azure, onsite servers and advanced networking — managed end-to-end.
Learn more - Cyber
Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery
Daily backups, 4G failover, and business-grade hardware with next-day onsite warranty — built to survive failure.
Learn more - Cyber
Cybersecurity
Essential Eight and ISO/IEC 27001 aligned protection across every system we deliver.
Learn more
Frequently asked questions
No name · No email · No follow-up
Check your Essential Eight score
Eight questions, about two minutes. You’ll come out with a plain list of what’s holding up, what isn’t, and what it takes to fix each gap. Some of it you’ll be able to do yourself. Some of it honestly needs a hand — and if you’d rather not deal with any of it, it’s all covered in our support plans.
The list at the end is yours to keep and act on — that part is free, and there is nothing to sign for it. If you would rather we took some or all of it on, ask on chat and we will tell you what is involved.
The Essential Eight is an Australian Government standard, and every small business should be able to measure itself against it without paying for the privilege or handing over their details. There’s no form here, so whether we ever speak is your call.
One question for each of the Essential Eight, all at Maturity Level 1 — the baseline ASD says every small business should meet. About two minutes.
answered you are here still to answer· eight groups, one per Essential Eight strategy · click any square to jump to it
Does anyone send you a patch report each month or on request, showing what got updated and what didn't?
Choose one of these four answersor press 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 to answer
Not sure what this question is asking? Ask on chat and we’ll explain what the standard means.
The two questions everybody asks last
What does it cost — and what happens to our week if we switch?
Fair questions, so here are both answers on one page. Our plans are the same three Essential Eight maturity levels you just read about — you aren't choosing between vague bundles, you're choosing how far up the Government's own standard you want to be.
- Most popular
Fortress
$139/user/month
Essential Eight · Maturity Level 1
✓ Compliant · all 8 of 8 controls at ML1
Full compliance with the Australian Government's Essential Eight baseline — all eight strategies, implemented, managed and documented so you can prove it.
Where most businesses land: unlimited support for everything, full Essential Eight compliance, and human threat hunters watching around the clock.
Support, unlimited
Security, complete
Knox
$179/user/month
Essential Eight · Maturity Level 2
✓ Compliant · all 8 of 8 controls at ML2
Maturity Level 2 — stronger protection for businesses adversaries deliberately target, and the level expected for government and defence work.
Businesses handling sensitive data or working with government, defence and regulated industries — where compliance isn't optional.
Everything in Fortress, plus
Compliance & data
Advanced threat defence
Titan
$219/user/month
Essential Eight · Maturity Level 3
✓ Compliant · all 8 of 8 controls at ML3
Maturity Level 3 — the highest level, built to withstand determined, well-resourced, targeted attackers. For those who can't afford "almost."
Chosen by organisations where a breach would be catastrophic — defence primes, health, finance and legal. The standard for those who can't afford "almost."
Everything in Knox, plus
Maximum protection · Maturity Level 3
Minimum 5 users on all plans.Add-ons available on every plan: Microsoft Copilot AI · Azure & AWS virtual servers.
And the part you're actually worried about
Nearly every venue we speak to raises the same real objection, and it isn't price — it's the fortnight of chaos they assume comes with changing providers. There isn't one. The work happens before anything changes, and changing providers is our problem to manage, not yours to survive.
- 04
Behind-the-Scenes Setup
We prepare the POS, bookings, back office and venue network before trading is affected — and separate the guest Wi-Fi from the till while we are in there.
No trading hour is spent on IT work.
- 05
The Seamless Switchover
We switch you over between close and open, and we test POS, bookings and EFTPOS by putting a real transaction through before we leave the building.
You open on time and take money from the first customer.
- 06
Your Team Gets Comfortable
Managers get the full handover. Bar and floor staff get one card telling them exactly what to do if the till stops mid-service.
A Saturday-night problem is fixed without ringing the owner.
Keep your venue trading and your data protected.
Book your free Essential Eight Cyber Security Scorecard and we'll show you exactly where your venue stands — uptime, security and all — and what to fix first. No jargon, no obligation.
- A plain-English Essential Eight Cyber Security Scorecard for your venue
- Where you stand on uptime, backups and the Essential Eight
- A clear plan tailored to how your venue trades