Hello,
I'm new to the Windows Azure VM thing and I need some advice on what size/how many machines I need. I manage IT for a small construction company (15-35 employees) and I need to create a network for them. I would like to have all virtual machines with VPN to each office (5-8 employees in each). These offices are located throughout the Southeastern US and Caribbean. Right now I have Cisco 891W VPN routers, I assume these will work with the Azure VPN service?
Here is what I need:
DNS Server
Domain Controller
Accounting Software (3 users, max. Needs Quad Core Processor 3MHz minimum and 8GB ram) I think these specs are over-done but anyways.
Construction Project Management Software (4-5 users, no system requirements published. I don't think it is very intensive).
Here is what I want/considering:
Exchange Server 2013 for those 15-35 users.
Blackberry Service would be necessary, so factor in room for a provider.
Cisco Call Manager (or whatever it's called) for my VOIP Phone System. This is a big MAYBE. I think the software is too expensive and not sure if it's worth paying for a VM to service just this small company.
So, please give me opinions on how you would setup this on VM's. Right now Office 365 has my emails but I am not happy with paying extra for the spam and in-place holds. I also don't like the limited control I have over my O365 Exchange vs Exchange 2013. One question I have is would two VM's be necessary for redundancy for Exchange? How does that work and does the second Exchange VM have to stay operational at all times or does it get put on an availability schedule? Please also tell me how individual machines (laptops) would VPN into the network. Does Win Azure provide an application or...? Then, is it easy to enlarge the size of a server if it needs more power than it has?
Thanks for your help.
Clayton