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Here is a brief overview of what my current company’s IT infrastructure looks like. We have about 40 people using either desktops or iPads within our company as well.

We have the following in our infrastructure currently:

  • Exchange
  • Domain Controller
  • File Server
  • Fiber connection (50 meg up/down)
  • 2 miscellaneous servers for testing
  • Back-up server
  • Currently using about 1.5 TB of space according to our back-ups.

Management has come to me to get pricing on moving the servers above out on the “cloud” so we eliminate the need for servers on-site. I have done a few Google searches and read into some of them, but I figured I would ask the people here who maybe have done this, or are looking at doing this as well.

  • Where is a good place to start?
  • What things should I look at that could potentially cause problems with a cloud server environment?
  • What is the average cost (so I know I am not getting dupped)?
  • Is there a company that has the market share/good reputation?

Any and all information on this would be extremely helpful. Thank you in advance!

9 Spice ups
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Amazon AWS is pretty solid. Their pricing is flexible, and offer quite a few other services other than just cloud servers, but to be honest you may be okay just looking into something like Office 365/Google apps primarily. The bulk of your load is probably with Exchange, the file server and back-ups, and both services would take care of those needs.

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I know I priced moving one of the non-profits I manage to Amazon/Azure and they would have spent more money over 5 years on cloud hosting then if they were to have just purchased a new VM Server/required ancillary services. Granted they are about twice as big as you from your description. Just wanted to bring this up so you make sure you are actually saving money by doing this over the long term.

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Are they looking to get away from hardware costs/maintenance?

Do they want the latest software versions or do they like to purchase one time and stick with it?

Consider collocation options if they want to purchase and stick with it for x years. Otherwise start moving some of them to cloud services (Office 365 / RackSpace / etc)

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Our servers are getting older, so we are looking at moving away from replacing them completely. Now my CFO will say lets buy the hardware and use it until it dies, where myself, and the owner are more towards, lets get stable, online services with current versions of the software we use.

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For some of them I would look at cloud services instead of VMs (Exchange)

Would SharePoint work for File Server or do you just want a pot to drop stuff in?

Do you always need the test servers? If not spin up test ones when need could save monthly costs.

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you’ll need DR in the hosted setup and multiple ISPs at your HQ ie if you loose the fiber you’re stuffed, if the ‘cloud’ datacetnre goes down you’re stuffed

also what the fileserver like wrt to filesize etc. All of sudden you’re dropping from zero latency and gb (more more) bandwidth to 30ms maybe more latency and 50mb shared across all the service and Fred down the hall getting the baseball scores! this can severly effect SMB/CIFS!

Think about what servers/services are useful to move, email could be handy offsite in office365/google-apps etc but file servers, maybe not…

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Also look at the three-five year costs, running stuff in cloud is great for some things - very agile etc but for longer term stuff local servers can still be much cheaper.

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Cloud can mean so many things, that’s going to make this hard. Make sure you have a good idea of what you are seeking before getting started. This might help:

Cloud Computing Infrastructure at SpiceCorps DFW 2012

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Almost certainly. We can colo much cheaper than we can go cloud. For this reason:

http://www.smbitjournal.com/2013/06/when-to-consider-a-private-cloud/

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Hi. Have you check’d out Zetta.net ? It’s an enterprise-grade cloud backup & DR solution for SMBs that includes local and cloud backup & DR, software licenses for an unlimited number of plug-ins–files servers, SQL, NetApp, Hyper-V & VMware and supports Windows, Linux, MAC OS secure cloud storage, and 24x7x365 US-based support at no extra cost. Make sure you’re not being charge extra for any of these features, especially support because your cost will go up dramatically. The solution deploys in minutes and does not require an appliance to deploy or manage, starting at $175/mo.

It’s enterprise-grade in terms of security–SSAE-16 certified Geo-dispersed data centers, HIPAA, ITAR, SOX, etc compliant, encryption in flight and at rest; performance–WAN optimized to move larger data sets, up to 5TB in 24 hours; and reliability–99.99996% backup reliability and 100% recovery reliability. Your backup environment can be managed through a centralized management portal for easy access from anywhere.

Zetta.net has experienced unprecedented growth in 2013–130% customer growth, 310% partner growth and 97% customer retention. Take a free trial or request a quote at no obligation.

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For exchange, you could move to Microsoft 365.
If you want your own managed virtual servers with a VPN you can use Steelgate which will do the backup and provide you all the tools.

If you want a complete cloud environment, look at windows azure but it will cost you more than having it in house.

Albert ametais@steelgate.com

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Hey Jeremy,

Based on your current configuration, Quorum would be perfect to help you with your setup. We actually just did a hangout today about domain controllers if you want to take a look and see how simple it is to use our solution. You can also test drive Quorum using our onQ demo onQ demo tool.

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Hi Jeremy,

Quorum’s Hybrid Cloud Solution was #1 on the Spiceworks Top Products in 2013 Cloud and SaaS category. Keep us in mind if you decide to keep a couple of servers at your local site and would like a cloud resource for DR.

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If you are somewhat fimiliar with Linux, maybe rent out some servers and install Zentyal on them. The software itself is free, so you would only be “renting” the hardware.

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As you mentioned, your servers are near the end of their life-cycle. That means you need to act pretty quick or at least have a contingency plan in place, sooner better than later, to prevent downtime in the event of a system or site failure. The Quorum HA appliance will eliminate your need for test and back up servers, replicate your other physical servers to a virtual environment both locally and offsite at your second location, colo, or Quorum cloud. In your case, it would be more cost effective to implement DRaaS and replace physical servers as needed or migrate them to a virtual host machine of your choice when equipment fails. There’s no rush to replace aging servers as the service can fully support your production environment with little or no drop in performance.

If you’d like, please pm to find out if our TCO will fit your business model.

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