I've got a small company I support (5 Phones), and they are currently running on a 1985 AT&T Merlin system. The phone bill is obnoxious ($600+).

A week or so ago I posted thinking about hosting a pbx myself for them, but after feedback from the forum decided not worth the time or costs involved.

Since then I've talked to several vendors... The big ones like Ring Central and 8x8. They seem very much the same per seat and add-on fee wise.

Then I was suggested a company called Net2Phone. I've never heard of them but they seem to be less expensive and fewer add-on fees. Has anyone any experience with them?

Thanks.

PS: I posted this elsewhere, but deleted.

I manage a few different locations for my organization. I was looking to setup (Mesh Central) or purchase a service like Splashtop to access systems remotely easier.

However, one location I support deals with medical records for children and so I am thinking I need something HIPPA compliant. I don't know a lot about that, but from what I read as long as the connection is encrypted you are compliant.

Does anyone else use Mesh Central in a setting like this? It is certainly a lot cheaper to host a $5 server and run it vs the expense of a tool like Splashtop.

Thanks!

Hello,

Just looking for some help on where to start first...

My company needs to start upgrading some of our infrastructure. Currently we are running on ESXi, with less than 15 VM's across two hosts. Everything is Windows (2012) and linux.

We still have Exchange (2013) on-premise.

My thought is that first step should be get the email to Exchange Online.

Then move our systems to a cloud somewhere. Build out a site to site to a their datacenter and slowly build / upgrade things.

Total storage of VM's / Exchange is less than 5TB.

Thanks.

Hello,

I support a small sister company that has 5 phones. I just got a look at their current phone bill and it is over $600 monthly. They are still on copper lines and an old AT&T merlin system without features like caller-id.

At the moment I've got time, so thought I'd look to tackle this issue and get them something modern and fresh. I am stuck on which direction to go however.

Am I better to just outsource it with someone like Ring Central or 8x8? I've been playing with FreePBX and Vultr hosting it. I've got a sip trunk with voip.ms...

What route would others go? I don't see a lot of growing at this company so there wouldn't be a lot of adds and changes...

Thanks

@jaredbusch

I see the same with all the services out there. I am skeptical of them, because I don't know if they are really service issue or just network issues causing trouble. Non-technical folks setting up the service.

@scottalanmiller

I used CommQuotes for this recommendation. They based it on my requirements this is one of the vendors they suggested. Just not familiar with N2P.

@phil-commquotes

Right now they have an 800 number, local number, and two fax lines.

Calls come in to a ring group and buzz a couple phones. I don't even think an auto attendant is required. I'm more trying to save money on the bill vs features.

@gjacobse I've used that at another location, and really like it. Probably what I will pivot to with the move to M365.

@jaredbusch The vmware infrastructure is not domain joined. It is the paid edition with Veeam as our backup solution.

I just have a domain controller running on each of the two hosts. There is no HA, and each is local storage.

I like keeping everything separate, so to save on a license of windows maybe something like samba for a file server would work.

SQL runs the Sage ERP databases, as well as our in-house system which I hate to say still mostly runs on Access 2003 ADP files. That's a developer thing/responsibility.

The IIS server is a developer thing too for stuff he has rewritten in .NET and is hosting on it. I do nothing with it. SQL / IIS / and the Access stuff are his babies.

WDS is really running MDT. I use it for deployment of PC's and such when needed. Saves me a lot of time.

@jaredbusch I'm actually trying to decipher it, and basically everyone uses that term for everything.

You have public clouds like Azure and AWS.

Then you have everyone else it seems competing against them. The INAP / iland , etc. Who I guess are more colocation type of companies.

The stuff I'm doing and referring to as cloud is running VM's in a datacenter. The company classifies it as a virtual private cloud from my portal.

@dustinb3403 As far as our file server goes, it mostly holds word, excel, pdf's, and yes autocad files our engineers create/use.

The IIS system runs an internal costing and sales app. Our actual website is hosted elsewhere.

WDS I figured wouldn't work, but I also considered intune with M365 for that possibly.

The accounting system is Sage ERP 300. It's a POS in my opinion.

Our internet can scale, we are on fiber at at 50mbps currently.

Would you see any benefit to a split environment of cloud and on-premise if things like autocad files became slow to open?

@dustinb3403 The systems I'm currently running that make up the major stuff are two domain controllers, file server, sql server, iis server, exchange server, wds, and accounting system.

The rest are mostly linux machines running ubiquiti controller, openvpn.

The idea of the cloud is mostly due to a sister company shifting to INAP / Single Hop. We also have a charity as well I support hosting one server in the cloud.

The part I do like is not having to worry about the infrastructure. Upgrading hybervisors, etc. I don't need to worry as much about power loss which can be an issue from time to time.

Hello,

Just looking for some help on where to start first...

My company needs to start upgrading some of our infrastructure. Currently we are running on ESXi, with less than 15 VM's across two hosts. Everything is Windows (2012) and linux.

We still have Exchange (2013) on-premise.

My thought is that first step should be get the email to Exchange Online.

Then move our systems to a cloud somewhere. Build out a site to site to a their datacenter and slowly build / upgrade things.

Total storage of VM's / Exchange is less than 5TB.

Thanks.

Greetings,

I work at an organization that has been living with Access 2003 and ADP files running our business for far to long. I've been at the organization 10 years.

The moment I walked in I said it needed to be upgraded. It is a two man IT shop, with me doing much of everything (systems, networking, help desk, web design, etc), and a developer who writes and modifies this Access 2003 system.

When we migrated to Windows 8.1 years ago, the developer we had then said it would take 6 months and it was only temporary. He has come and gone and now we have a new guy for the last few years.

The new guy is coding some area of it in .NET and making it web based. However, I feel it is taking too long, and way to much for one person to tackle. While putting us at risk if say tomorrow he left, or Microsoft decided to kill off 32-bit software support or something. I've already had to band aide to get running on Windows 10.

Can anyone recommend ERP systems for manufacturing? As well as give me some general reasons why this is such a poor thing we are doing. I'm hoping to get some momentum and move us away from this strategy sooner than later.

Thanks!

@black3dynamite said in Remote Access & HIPPA:

Don't no much about HIPPA, but I would definitely enabled Two Factor Authentication (2FA) if you end up using MeshCentral and adjust the password requirements.

I've already enabled that. I'm more concerned with using it in a medical environment. I was hoping to use one tool across all the organizations and because this one has medical records it throws a wrench into the mix.

I manage a few different locations for my organization. I was looking to setup (Mesh Central) or purchase a service like Splashtop to access systems remotely easier.

However, one location I support deals with medical records for children and so I am thinking I need something HIPPA compliant. I don't know a lot about that, but from what I read as long as the connection is encrypted you are compliant.

Does anyone else use Mesh Central in a setting like this? It is certainly a lot cheaper to host a $5 server and run it vs the expense of a tool like Splashtop.

Thanks!

Greetings,

I'm trying to get everyone's thoughts on Cyber Insurance. Our accounting controller is asking me about this, and if it is necessary.

I'm not really sure, and too familiar with it. We have a couple different entities... Two are manufacturing companies, and one is a 501c3 which deals with medical and HIPPA.

Just curious what others thoughts and take it on this new form of insurance. Are most starting to carry?

Thanks