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I want to set up 5 powerful computers to run Mechanical Engineering software in my home office, and give remote access to my contractors on a daily basis. Which remote access works best for me? (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by imp0ster666@alien.top to c/homelab@selfhosted.forum

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I am an independent contractor that contracts out to my interns that are spread around the whole country. I am still a small business that would like to make an efficient and affordable setup. So far, I have figured that for $500 a piece, I can buy pretty good refurbished PC from ebay and set up my software on them. What is the best bang for buck remote access I can deploy to have very smooth remote access system going on? I have read that windows RDP is a free option. Is there a exponentially better paid option that won't break the bank for me? What would you guys recommend?

Another reason I want to do this is that we don't have to deal with file transfer back and forth. I would like to keep the files in these computers. This bring me to my next question. Is it possible to set up a single drive that contains all the files and no matter whichever computer they have remoted in, they would save the files in one central location?

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[–] Zeal514@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

So... Your issue isn't going to be getting them what they need. Your issue is gonna be need High Availability and scalability. To give them info, you can create a VPN, or some sort of tunneling service. You can migrate to a cloud service such as azure, AWS, or Google cloud.

Scalability means that if your business expands, it'll be easy for you to expand computing resources, without the need for redesign (this gets expensive). Also you don't want to be stuck paying for services you don't use. No sense buying a $1k server, if a $200 server does the job. But that $200 server might not be enough next week.

High Availability means, if the server your instance is on goes down, it will automatically populate on a different server, so your employees/interns never lose connectivity.

Once you decide that platform, you need someone who will administrate users and privileges, backups, basic IT support to those in the field.

This is typically what a MSP handles for businesses. Designing, the system, and the way the system is maintained is why ppl get paid the big bucks.

This is why, most businesses hire a IT professional to do this. They should know, saas, paas & iaas. Know which one is right for you, help you decide which cloud platform you go with, and which security measures you go with.

Now you'll likely find a solution that works on this subreddit, you'll likely find cheap solutions, overly expensive solutions, and secure and insecure solutions, and everything in between. I'd be looking to either hire a system administrator, or a MSP to set this up right from the getgo. If you feel you are up to that task, by all means. But, as someone who ran a business, and is now looking to get into this exact field. This is a full time job you are giving yourself.