I was on a call the other day and speaking with a small business owner. The business is comprised of a host computer running a SQL Server Express Line of Business Application (LOB) and QuickBooks. Six PC’s and various printers are connected to the network and access the application(s) on the host.
As I was speaking with the owner about his current situation and future needs I asked what he would like to most have. The answered surprised me.
The owner really wanted the ability for him and his employees to access the LOB Application remotely. He was especially interested in being able to hire people who were remote from his physical location. Finding qualified candidates to fill open positions was one of his most daunting tasks.
He told me that they currently used LogMeIn for remote access but, for the most part they didn’t like using it because they didn’t know when another employee might be using a particular workstation and the owner personally, wasn’t a fan of the LMI interface.
Once remote access tools like LogMeIn or GoToMyPC were ruled out of the equation, there are really only two realistic scenarios for the small business owner; VPN access or Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS). A quick call to the Line of Business software help line quickly put the kibosh on the idea of using VPN for remote access. While it may work, the vendor specifically calls out that configuration of the software as “Not Supported”. Not an uncommon situation when dealing with SQL Server applications.
That left us with the RDS solution. After listening to what an RDS configuration was and what would be required to implement the solution at his location the owner was concerned about a number of items. 1). He didn’t want to lay out the capital required for servers, upgrading communications, upgrading backup and disaster recovery and some physical modifications to where the equipment would be located. 2). His physical location was known to have some power issues and he wasn’t sure that the business would remain at the current location after his lease was up in the next year.
It was at this point I suggested that we move the entire RDS infrastructure to Google’s Cloud Platform. Moving him to the cloud solved nearly all of his concerns. There was no outlay of capital for new equipment and modifications. Employees would have remote access to the LOB application. His concerns about moving at the end of his lease were addressed as there would be no equipment to move and no chance of downtime if he moved.
By selecting a cloud solution he attained all the functionality required by his business, complete support, Windows Office licensing, better security full professional backup services, and all the additional productivity gains that come with moving to the cloud for under $700 per month.
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