Hey everyone! We're looking to make our infrastructure serverless while still maintaining essential services like Active Directory, DHCP, and file storage across 10 sites connected via SD-WAN. Each site has a single AD Forest and uses Exchange Online and OneDrive for all users, which range from 50 to 200 per location. We're using Cisco networking gear, and all workstations are domain-joined. Our aim is to reduce the burden of legacy hardware and move towards a more cloud-centric model. What would be the best steps to modernize our setup and possibly go serverless over the next 2-3 years? I'd appreciate any insights or recommendations!
2 Answers
You've got a solid foundation to work from! If you're not running other workloads, I suggest you cloud-join your PCs and shift your files to SharePoint. Let the Cisco gear handle DHCP at each site. This can all happen in stages if you prefer a hybrid setup. Printing solutions and DNS filtering might need some attention afterward, but it’s manageable.
It sounds like you're on the right track for moving services to the Microsoft cloud. I recommend starting with a hybrid setup where Microsoft Entra ID replaces AD and using SharePoint/OneDrive for file storage. Your Cisco gear should manage DHCP across sites, and you might want to move local storage to the cloud first. Transitioning to Entra ID and Intune for your PCs would be a smart next step, followed by moving DHCP/DNS to Cisco. Once you're off local servers, SD-WAN will feel less essential, but it can be adjusted anytime.
Consider using a cloud-based printing solution like Papercut; it's usually cheaper!