A cloud POS runs on the vendor's servers in a data center rather than on a server in your back office, which means there is no box to buy, back up, or replace, and it also means the system needs the internet to ring a sale. The good news is that it does not need much of it: Rundoo, the AI-first POS for independent supply stores, asks stores to confirm at least 5 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload, ideally over a wired connection, plus a backup connection such as a hotspot for the day the line goes down. Speed is rarely the problem for a supply store. A connection that is steady, and a backup that somebody has tested, is what keeps the counter open.
This guide walks through what changes when the server leaves the building, what kind of internet a hardware store, feed store, lumberyard, paint store, or garden center needs, what to do when fiber has not reached your road, how the computers, card readers, and printers sit on your store network, and how to build the backup plan before you need it.
Cloud or server: what changes when the box in the back office goes away
With a server-based system, the database lives on a computer at your store, often a tower tucked behind the paint cans or under the desk by the returns counter, and every register in the building talks to it over your local network. That setup has one real strength: when the internet drops, the registers can keep ringing sales against the server, as long as the power and the network inside the building hold. It also has a long list of chores that land on somebody at the store, because that one machine has to be backed up, patched, kept away from ransomware, and replaced before its hard drive gives out, and when it fails, the whole store fails with it.
A cloud system moves the database to a data center and turns every register into a web browser. Rundoo, for example, stores your information in Google Cloud, in a managed database service called Cloud SQL, with point-in-time recovery running by default and copies kept across physically separate data centers, so a dead computer at the counter, a break-in, or a flood in the stockroom does not take your sales history, customer balances, or inventory counts with it. We lay out the full case in is the cloud more secure and resilient than my own server, and it comes down to who does the backing up: in the cloud it is a data center team that does nothing else, rather than the owner on a Sunday night.
The trade is the connection. A cloud system with no server at the store has nothing local to fall back on, so the internet stops being a convenience and becomes part of the checkout. That sounds scarier than it plays out in practice, because the fix is cheap, and it is the rest of this guide.
Do you have to have internet?
Yes. Every device that runs a cloud POS, and every card reader that takes a payment, needs a working connection to do its job, and there is no way around that for a system whose data lives in a data center. Some cloud systems soften the edge with an offline mode that queues card payments and settles them later, within limits the vendor sets. That is useful, and it also carries a risk the store absorbs, because a card that gets declined once the connection comes back is a sale you already handed over the counter. An offline register also cannot check a charge customer's credit limit against an account it cannot reach, so even an offline-capable system needs a connectivity plan.
Rundoo has no offline mode, and our CEO explains why in plain language in where is the offline mode. The short version is that an offline copy of a POS is a smaller, slower POS that has to be installed and kept in sync, and the stores running Rundoo keep selling through outages by switching to cellular instead. One paint store client stayed open through a citywide internet outage on a phone hotspot, taking card payments all day, while a competitor down the road closed its doors, which is about the best argument for a backup connection we have heard.
How much internet speed a supply store needs
Less than you think. Ringing a sale, looking up a customer, and sending a payment to the card network move small amounts of data, so a POS is a light user of bandwidth next to a security camera system or a teenager streaming video in the break room. Rundoo asks stores to confirm at least 5 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload, ideally over a wired connection rather than wireless or a hotspot, which almost any business internet plan sold today clears with room to spare.
Three things matter more than the headline speed:
- Steadiness. A connection that holds at a modest speed all day beats a fast one that drops at 3 p.m. when the school buses come through. If your service has a habit of cutting out, that pattern is the thing to fix or back up.
- Upload, not just download. Internet plans advertise download speed in big letters and upload speed in small ones, and some rural plans have very little upload. Check both numbers, at the counter, at your busiest hour.
- Wired where you can. A computer plugged into the router with a cable will be steadier than one on Wi-Fi across a store full of metal shelving, and a Wi-Fi signal that is strong at the front counter may be weak by the lumber shed or the back of the greenhouse.
The fastest way to know where you stand is to run a speed test from the counter computer on a busy Saturday morning, then walk the store with a tablet or phone and test every spot where you might ring a sale.
Stores without fiber
A lot of feed stores, lumberyards, and garden centers sit on roads that fiber has not reached, and plenty of them run cloud systems anyway, because a supply store's needs are modest and there are more ways to get a steady connection than there used to be. Here is how the common options stack up for a store, described in general terms, since what you can buy depends on your address:
| Connection | Where it fits | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Cable | Towns and the edge of town | Steady for most stores; upload can be low on cheaper plans |
| DSL | Older phone lines in rural areas | Speed depends on distance from the phone company's equipment, so test at the counter |
| Fixed wireless | Rural areas served by a local provider with a tower | Needs a clear line to the tower; trees and weather can matter |
| 5G home or business internet | Anywhere with strong cellular coverage | No cable to the building at all; some Rundoo stores have moved to it for reliability |
| Satellite | Places nothing else reaches | Works for browser software when the service is steady; test it during the busiest hour |
Whichever you pick, the backup should come from a different path than the main line. If the main service is a cable to the building, a cellular hotspot makes a good backup because a backhoe that cuts the cable will not touch the cell tower. If the main service is already cellular, a second carrier or a wired service makes the better backup.
How computers, card readers, and printers sit on your network
A cloud POS turns the counter into a few ordinary devices on your store network, and it helps to know which piece talks to what, because that tells you what keeps working when one part of the network goes down.
- The register. Any computer, laptop, or tablet with a modern web browser can run a browser-based POS, and Rundoo asks for Windows 10 or 11, macOS Ventura or newer, or Chrome OS on counter computers. It reaches the internet through your router, by cable or Wi-Fi.
- The card reader. Modern smart readers do not hang off the computer by a cable. The Stripe Reader S700 and S710, according to Stripe's setup documentation, communicate directly with Stripe and connect to the internet over Wi-Fi or through an optional hub with a wired Ethernet port, and the S710 also supports a cellular connection, with the reader preferring Ethernet, then Wi-Fi, then cellular. Rundoo uses the Stripe S710, which we configure and ship to the store, and those readers connect over Wi-Fi to the same network as the device running the POS. Because card numbers are handled on Stripe's servers rather than on your machine, there is nothing at the counter for a thief to grab, and your PCI paperwork shrinks from the 26-page form to a 3-page one.
- The receipt printer and cash drawer. Rundoo works with Star thermal receipt printers that support CloudPRNT, which receive print jobs over the network, and the cash drawer pops through the printer.
- The barcode scanner. Scanners plug into or pair with the computer or tablet at the counter, so they follow the register rather than needing a network connection of their own.
The practical upshot is that the router is now the most important box in the store, a job the back-office server used to hold. Put it somewhere sensible, plug it into a small battery backup so a power flicker does not reboot it, and make sure everyone knows which one it is, because "unplug it and plug it back in" is still the first move in every outage.
When the line goes down: the backup plan
The plan has three parts, and none of them costs much.
- A backup connection, ready to switch on. The simplest is a phone's personal hotspot, which most smartphones can share in a few taps. A step up is a dedicated hotspot box kept plugged in at the counter, so staff do not have to tether to their own phones. A third option is a second internet service from a different provider, such as 5G internet beside a cable line. Our offline-mode article walks through all three with setup links.
- A rule for who switches and when. Write down where the hotspot lives, what its password is, and who flips the counter to it, so nobody spends twenty minutes hoping the router comes back on its own. Two minutes without internet is a reason to switch, not a reason to wait.
- A test before you need it. On a slow morning, unplug the main connection and time how long it takes to get the registers and card readers ringing again on the backup. Do it again before your busy season, whether that is spring at a garden center or the fall feed rush, because a backup that was set up once and never tried is a backup in name only.
Rundoo's implementation managers build this plan with each store before go-live, and for stores in spotty-coverage areas they map it out in detail, so the first outage is a non-event rather than a surprise. If you are planning a switch, our guide to switching POS without downtime covers how go-live day works, and the greenhouse checkout guide covers Wi-Fi dead spots in hoop houses and yards.
Server, offline-capable cloud, and cloud only: the tradeoffs
No setup is free of risk, so the question is which risks you want to manage and who manages them.
| Server at the store | Cloud with an offline mode | Cloud with no offline mode | |
|---|---|---|---|
| When the internet drops | Keeps ringing on the local network | Queues some sales and card payments within the vendor's limits | Switch to the backup connection |
| When the store computer dies | The whole store stops until it is replaced and restored | Swap in another device and sign in | Swap in another device and sign in |
| Backups | Your job, and often a USB drive next to the server | The vendor's job | The vendor's job |
| Updates | Installed, often by a technician or after a long download | Mostly automatic | Arrive in the browser automatically |
| Reaching the store from home | Needs remote-access software | From any browser | From any browser |
| The risk you carry | Hardware failure, theft, ransomware, missed backups | Card payments declined after the fact; credit limits unchecked offline | A store with no tested backup connection |
A back-office server fails when its own hardware does, and a cloud system fails when the connection does without a backup, so the real comparison is between a box that someone has to look after and a hotspot that someone has to remember to test. Most store owners we talk to would rather own the hotspot.
Questions to ask any vendor
Bring these to every demo, cloud or not, and listen for straight answers:
- Is there a server at my store, and if so, who backs it up and who replaces it?
- What internet speed do you ask for, and does upload speed matter?
- What happens to a sale, a card payment, and a charge account if the internet drops halfway through?
- How do your card readers connect, and can they run on Wi-Fi, a cable, or cellular?
- Who helps me set up a backup connection, and when do we test it?
We collect more of these, organized by the transactions to run in front of the salesperson, in our POS demo script, and if the size and staying power of the company behind the cloud is the next worry on your list, we cover that in what happens to your store if your POS company is sold.
How Rundoo handles it
Rundoo runs only in the cloud, on Google Cloud, and the whole Web App and POS runs in a web browser, so there is no server to buy or install, nothing to back up at the store, and updates arrive on their own. Your data lives in Cloud SQL with point-in-time recovery and copies across separate data centers, you own it, and you can export it any time through the report builder. Most of the computers and tablets you already own keep working, and the one piece of hardware Rundoo provides is the Stripe S710 card reader, configured before it ships.
Rundoo needs an internet connection, and it has no offline mode. We ask for at least 5 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload, ideally wired, with a hotspot on hand as a backup, and because the POS runs in any browser, including on a phone over cellular, a dropped store Wi-Fi does not have to stop the counter. Your implementation manager builds the backup plan with you before go-live, and the FAQ covers the other questions owners bring to a first call.
