I recently acquired a business that has a physical server on site. The main uses for it are file storage (pdfs and CAD drawing files) as well as accessing the ERP system. Right now, the team only accesses it via their desktop machines connected by ethernet.
I would like to add the ability to access all of those things remotely as well as add a printer/scanner to the office which can print from / scan to anyone’s machine as well as the server.
Any suggestions on what I should be looking into, and resources showing me how to set it up?
Look into whether SharePoint and Onedrive would work instead (I’d check on the size of the CAD files) and use M365’s intune to use universal printing for copiers. You only need a server to operate as the print server - to host the drivers, permissions and print queue.
Got it - thanks! Would SharePoint or OneDrive help me access the ERP as well? I think the SQL database is stored on the server. Ideally I could have the ERP installed on my laptop and access all of the data remotely.
I don’t know the setup of your ERP but if it’s sending a lot of SQL between the server and the client, it can have some bad latency over a VPN so I’d test that. Most firewalls will have a VPN you can use so check that out and test with a client on your device and VPN to your network while external. If it is slow, you may want to RDP to the office and run the application from a terminal server.
If you need that infrastructure for your ERP, I’d also then suggest you check out costings for putting it onto public cloud like azure or AWS. I prefer to derisk from relying on a single office location but it can be a bit pricey building up systems in the cloud. You can use tools like Azure Pricing Calculator to put together a rough cost for that.
For all of this I would suggest ensuring you have an IT professional or at the very least someone contracted from upwork or something to help scope this out. The cost of that would be far less than the potential costs of this going poorly.
Also to clarify - Microsoft’s SharePoint and Onedrive are for file storage to replace that part of your current server and would allow access to those files wherever and on whatever internet connected device you used. Even if you don’t end up changing the ERP, I’d suggest implementing this or use Google Drive.
Onedrive - personal storage with adhoc sharing.
SharePoint - shared storage made for ongoing sharing areas.
Ultimately Onedrive counts as a personal site in SharePoint for business tenants but is generally more understood.