Azure hosting or similar

[Spoiler]

Have a requirement for hosting a Windows server somewhere.

Scenario is: Small company has a Windows Server running in an office (primarily to run a legacy EPOS program locally). 2 users also access the server remotely (using RDP).
The office is now closing, so office users will be working remotely full-time. But, still need to run a Windows box somewhere as the EPOS program is still used.
I'd prefer not to have a Windows server running at someone's house.

So ... thought about using a Windows cloud server, as the pricing for 1 Windows box seems reasonable. And unless I messed up the pricing, a basic Azure hosted Windows Server comes in around £12 per month.

Any other suggestions for Windows hosting ? I've only ever done Linux hosting (through Linode) ... and err, they don't do Windows !

[eek]

Have a requirement for hosting a Windows server somewhere.

Scenario is: Small company has a Windows Server running in an office (primarily to run a legacy EPOS program locally). 2 users also access the server remotely (using RDP).
The office is now closing, so office users will be working remotely full-time. But, still need to run a Windows box somewhere as the EPOS program is still used.
I'd prefer not to have a Windows server running at someone's house.

So ... thought about using a Windows cloud server, as the pricing for 1 Windows box seems reasonable. And unless I messed up the pricing, a basic Azure hosted Windows Server comes in around £12 per month.

Any other suggestions for Windows hosting ? I've only ever done Linux hosting (through Linode) ... and err, they don't do Windows !

What version of Windows does that legacy EPOS run on? I suspect that is going to be your biggest issue....

[SeanT]

What version of Windows does that legacy EPOS run on? I suspect that is going to be your biggest issue....

Run a Linux box in the cloud somewhere, and run that version of windows as a vm under this...

[woohoo]

What version of windows do you need?

Checking my Azure portal, for windows server you can go back as far as 2008. For a client version you can go back as far as windows 7.

I'm guessing for £12 the vm is going to be a low spec.

[stek]

Is it for credit card duty etc? Might run into PCI-DSS issues...

[Spoiler]

Current server is running Windows Server 2008r2, 4GB RAM (using ~1.7GB according to task manager).

Will check what OSs are supported for the EPOS app.

Also will check out running a Windows VM on a Linux box ... maybe I can do that at Linode !

Thanks

[Spoiler]

Is it for credit card duty etc? Might run into PCI-DSS issues...

No. Payments are processed through a separate provider, no financial info is in the EPOS system. Although, there is still customer info (name, addresses, etc) so will have to think about that being in cloud...

[woohoo]

Current server is running Windows Server 2008r2, 4GB RAM (using ~1.7GB according to task manager).

Thanks

Might be a bit more than £12 if you need 2gb of ram.

[SeanT]

Might be a bit more than £12 if you need 2gb of ram.

With a modest amount of persistent storage, a couple of CPUs and 3.5GB of RAM you're talking £120 a month, plus the VAT, at headline prices. It looks like if you use a D2 promo instance you can double the RAM for a similar price (until the promo runs out). You won't get a usable windows application server in the public cloud for £12 a month, and you shouldn't store app data on the ephemeral storage which comes with the instance.

[garethevans1986]

I'd recommend AWS over Azure (I've worked with both), I'd also make sure the server can only be accessed via VPN rather than MSTSC over the public internet.

Happy to help if you need a hand.

Gareth