Our standard deployment for years included a Remote Desktop Gateway on each server we installed to make remoting into a desktop at work easy and fast. I have always recommended Microsoft Remote Desktop since it’s always fast and uses very little bandwidth compared to other solutions. The added encryption and security that the RD Gateway brings makes it perfect for remote work.

But now a lot of our clients are looking at abandoning their servers, for good reason. Cloud-based computing is here for a lot of us, and it’s a topic we always bring up during our client meetings. Just how long you’ll need to keep a server is really based on the software you use more than anything now. Most of the primary functions of a server can be accomplished with the Microsoft 365 suite, so it really boils down to if you need a local place to store data for your programs.

The primary driver for most businesses that we work with is their financial software. Whether that’s Intuit QuickBooks Enterprise, Sage Accounting, Ultra Tax, or Jonas Club Management, you are probably going to be keeping your server for a little while. If you can move to a cloud solution like QuickBooks Online, NetSuite, or even Acumatica, you may very well be able to ditch the server. But the one nasty word that is out there that catches some people is “hosted.”

A hosted solution, like what Rightworks does for QuickBooks and ProSeries, is not a true cloud solution. It’s just paying someone else to run your server for you, and it is almost always worse than just doing it yourself. Even for small companies. There is a lot of added complexity with getting files back and forth from the hosted server and the solution is rarely performant, since they’re maximizing the number of people they can put on one server to keep their cost down.

We looked at the total cost of ownership of a server for a small business recently, and were a little surprised as to how much it would cost over its useful life. We currently budget around $8,000 for a basic server for a small business with 10 office workers. Splitting that up over 5 years, the cost is $133 per month. Add in our management fees to keep it up and running for you, and we’re still under $200 per month. So, if your hosted solution is going to cost more than $200 per month, you’re probably going to want to keep it local.

That said, cloud-based software like QuickBooks Online has a lot of extra features that you just can’t get compared to QuickBooks Pro, which changes that dynamic. We decided to move to QBO back in 2020, not because we were going to get rid of our server, but because we wanted to tie it in with a manufacturing solution. The ability to use APIs to talk between different pieces of software is a big plus for a lot of people.

This post is just a reminder that just about everything that your server does can be done with Microsoft’s solutions through the cloud now. So, if your server is running Windows Server 2016 or 2019, you might not actually need to replace it.

-Nate