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Hi all,
Vanilla are planning an update to the site on April 24th (next Wednesday). It is a major PHP8 update which is expected to boost performance across the site. The site will be down from 7pm and it is expected to take about an hour to complete. We appreciate your patience during the update.
Thanks all.

new server required- advice needed

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  • 11-08-2014 1:48pm
    #1
    mrsmack
    Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭


    Hello,
    Im probably the most non tech person on this forum but I need advise!!

    I started a new job as a manager 8 weeks ago and inherited the task of getting a new server as the one we currently have is approx 8 years old, hot plugs were added 2 years ago to free up / add on space but this still does not meet our needs.

    So, i have contacted a few companies for quotes which I have received for the hardware backup and installation etc but I now I am considering moving away from having an actual onsite server to going cloud based. I had someone in discussing MSoffice365 and migrating fully to cloud but Im not sure if this is best option.

    Can anyone help me or advise me what I should be looking at before making a decision???


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    #2
    Nate--IRL--
    Registered Users Posts: 2,219 ✭✭✭Nate--IRL--


    Depends what you want the Cloud to do, you could go the whole hog and go with something like a Hosted Desktop solution. Each user would have their own personal remote desktop, accessible from anywhere, with access to their company shared files and Applications held on the cloud servers.

    Exchange online is an option for Cloud email, fairly cheap and has fairly generous storage space also. Wouldn't recommend Microsoft OneDrive for storage though, we've run in to issues with it for customers.

    Nate


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    #3
    Kinet1c
    Closed Accounts Posts: 824 ✭✭✭Kinet1c


    You really need to look at the workflow of the staff within the company. While using Office365 for just email can be fine, are the staff competent enough to be able to use Sharepoint (if not already using it)?

    Is the business operating in a time sensitive industry? If Office 365 is down for a day and you've no access to anything, how would it affect your business when none of your data is accessible?

    Is there regulation within your industry which requires your data to be hosted here in Ireland? (if you're located here)

    That's a few questions to kick off with.


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    #4
    Mr. Fancypants
    Registered Users Posts: 1,892 ✭✭✭Mr. Fancypants


    We would need a bit more information to understand your needs before we could advise properly. Office 365 has some great features, email and lync are excellent, sharepoint is decent but for not suitable for everyone. I generally suggest going with an onsite file server where it suits and look at using sharepoint for documents that can take advantage of the feature set sharepoint offers such as collaboration etc.

    There are products that can allow for redundancy on the off chance Office 365 does go down (Mimecast have a product designed around this)

    If you have less than 25-20 users you could look at SBS 2012R2 Essentials with Office 365 Small Business/ Small Business Premium. It will give you the benefit of a local server for files/printing/dhcp etc and it hooks straight into Office 365 so you get a Single Sign On like ability.

    The server hardware itself doesnt need to be anything fancy in the above scenario. You will want to ensure it has a level of redundancy with hardware RAID at a minimum.

    Let me know if there are any questions i can answer for you.


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