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Steve HoodFlag for Canada

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Do we need servers???

Hi Everyone,

We are a growing company with approximately 50 users in total. (A head office with 20 users, the remaining 30 or so  work out of one of three remote offices.. a couple users work from home)

Here's a typical rundown of some of the documents we work with:
- A team of roughly 8 AutoCad Draftsman that work with large AutoCAD drawings as well as specialized 3D Lofting files and databases
- 4 staff work with Sage Accounting Software (the accounting files are Server based and network shared)
- 2 Graphics Designers that utilize the ADOBE suite of products, these girls work extensively with Adobe Photoshop and  and other graphics programs
- Everyone else (Including the above) regularly use the MS Office package (Word, Excel, Outlook) plus Adobe Acrobat for PDF creation.

We manage all of the above on MS Servers, our servers employ typical functions. Eg: (Domain Controller, Active Directory, Group Policy enforcement, Exchange 2007, Network DNS, Network Security Management, Patch Management, Printer Sharing, Manage user accounts and groups on the network, Manage backup, restore, and data storage, and so on).

Company now uses Office 2007 that is nearing end-of-life.
Our SBS 2008 servers are old now (8 years) and getting really slow and glitchy. Something needs to be done. Our IT Person recommends replacing the servers with one new server and Visualize it. He also suggests taking the email outside and host it Online with Microsoft in the cloud and continue to keep company data in-house (not in cloud for cost savings and also it works fine with VPN and RDP)

We host a web based application developed from scratch using a product named: AlphaAnywhere
This application is for our companies two marine brokerage businesses: Essentially an inventory of Used Commercial Boats and Fishing Licenses that we broker for clients.

Question: Could we not just use our host web server computer (it is not a dedicated server but rather Virtual at $149 monthly) to fulfill the functions of our on-site servers outlined above + perhaps store all company data (2 TB and growing). No active directory etc or domain controller; but rather, authenticate via website login.

As part of this process we hire a developer to re-code our websites application to integrate all users files and folders (into the website) so all they need do is log-in the website for remote access. In addition, and most importantly, our revised website would form the foundation of a company-wide CRM system whereby all company databases would be imported into it and linked together,

Any thoughts as to cost and feasibility?
PS> Is it customarily safe to integrate or link the above into a public web server? Even with login security it seems might present a security risk??
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CompProbSolv
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I would expect that you'd not be at all happy with access speed when working AutoCAD files over the internet.  Of course, it does depend on what upload and download speeds you and the host have.

I would suggest taking some of your larger AutoCAD files and copying them to and from your existing web server.  See how long it takes and decide if that would be acceptable.

There are many other questions to answer, but this is one that may be the most obvious one that makes this impractical.
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Cliff Galiher
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If your company is a startup, you can take the cloud approch. But, it will be a painful if you migrate all existing service to cloud. Besides, your current web hosting platform is too limited as its usage is not designed for other services and integration will be very difficult.
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Yes you still need servers. What you will save by not having them will be eclipsed by the cost of lost productivity