I'm currently in charge of our company's IT after my boss left last year. We're a small team of three, and we're experiencing some issues with our existing server setup, which is managed by a third-party provider. They've decided to change our server, and I need to figure out the best option for us moving forward. This will be my first time setting up a server from scratch, so I'm looking for advice.
Right now, we have two instances: one handles our ERP and file storage, while the second is for our DBaaS SQL server. The first instance is powered by two Xeon E5-2640 v3 processors with 64GB of RAM and a 3TB SSD set up in RAID 1—this is likely one of our bottlenecks. The second instance only has 1 vCPU and 8GB of RAM, which is clearly insufficient for our needs. I plan to upgrade that to 4 vCPUs and 16GB of RAM.
We have about 120 users connected to the server, with 50 to 60 online at the same time. I'm exploring options like AWS, Azure, or switching to a different hosting provider. I'm also considering changing our architecture—perhaps moving everything to SharePoint and running the ERP locally on user machines since budget constraints mean I can't significantly increase what we're currently paying. Any insights or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
4 Answers
If you're considering AWS or Azure, keep in mind that you'd be responsible for managing identity and backups, which your current provider handles for you. Are your users connecting to the ERP and file server via RDP? If so, you might need to think about RDS licensing too, among other things! I'd recommend consulting with some local managed service providers (MSPs) that offer hosting with identity management, backups, and remote access included.
Unfortunately, there's no Active Directory on the server, so everything's done manually. When I started, the server was already set up, and we’re stuck in a bad contract that charges extra for changes.
Just to clarify, are users directly accessing the server via RDP to run everything, or are they using an application on their workstations to connect to ERP and DB servers?
They connect directly using RDP and run everything on the server, including the ERP and Excel. The database is on a separate SQL server instance.
If budget is tight, you might want to consider other options like Hetzner instead of AWS or Azure. They have straightforward pricing that can help you estimate costs better. Just make sure to verify your requirements first with their pricing calculator!
Make sure to check your ERP’s licensing to see how many processors you're allowed. This can really impact your options.
Absolutely, our current provider manages almost everything, including backups and licenses. We'll need to buy SQL, Windows Server, and RDS CAL licenses ourselves. Right now, we use a VPN to connect via RDP.