How Many CAL's Would I Need?

[Longhair]

The current set up:

Computer A (XP Pro) has a stand alone .exe program that sits in a network shared folder that is capable of being launched on an unlimited amount of computers. The only time Computer A sees a CPU load from that program is when data is being saved. Other than that, all load is being carried from the remote computers. Also, the MS Office documents are saved to and stored in sub-folders of that same shared folder.

Computers B to G (in office) all run Windows XP Pro, have their own MS Office installed. They only require access to Computer A to run stand alone .exe program, open saved and store new documents which happens to be all at the same time.

This system has worked out great for years however, the time have come where multiple off-site VPN connects are required. After a lot of research, Windows Server 2008 R2 would be the easiest transition from the current set up of Windows XP Professional. I have just seen DirectAccess, so that may be a replacement for VPN because it is easier for non-computer literate people (Q: Is it plugged in? A: Is what plugged in? My computer? Yes, I just have no internet access when I switch to my laptop...)

There are 6 people total and only 4 of them would require to connect from off-site.

Another question: Would it be possible to have Microsoft Office only installed on Computer A and all the other computers would be able to run it like they would if it was installed on their own computer? If so, how would that be done - links please.

[nmX.Memnoch]

After a lot of research, Windows Server 2008 R2 would be the easiest transition from the current set up of Windows XP Professional.

On Windows client OS's (XP, Vista, 7) you're allowed up to 10 connections to an SMB share. You're getting close to that limit. Windows Server 2008 R2 will open up a lot more doors for you. You probably need to get your data over onto some hardware with redundancy anyway so a server wouldn't be a bad idea. In your situation I would look at either a Dell PowerEdge T310 or T610 and use Hyper-V 2008 R2. The T610 has a higher memory capacity which means you can run more VMs with sufficient memory allocation for each one. You may not need that many VMs to start with but it'll also give you room to grow. Never purchase a server for what you need now, purchase it with room for growth because technology and requirements constantly change. At the same time you don't want to overbuy either though. That balancing act is a fine art.

At that point you could implement Active Directory, folder redirection for things like My Documents and Favorites, server-side shares, etc. Your environment is small so it wouldn't be overly complicated to manage. In all honesty, it will probably simplify some of the things you currently do (Group Policy alone will do that for you).

Using Hyper-V 2008 R2 you do have licensing considerations for each virtual machine, but your environment is small enough that you could start with Server 2008 R2 Standard (with the exception maybe of your Certificate Authority...there are some certificate templates that aren't available on Standard).

I have just seen DirectAccess, so that may be a replacement for VPN because it is easier for non-computer literate people

DirectAccess rocks! We've just implemented it at work and our users LOVE not being required to initiate the VPN connection. It just works. The one thing I will warn you about is that unless your internal network is native IPv6 you won't be able to use just the DirectAccess feature built into Server 2008 R2. We ended up using ForeFront Unified Access Gateway. There are several other requirements such as two network connections on the server, two consecutive public IP addresses that are NOT NAT'ed, a Certificate Authority (which is easy to setup, but DON'T put it on a Domain Controller), an internal only website, and Windows 7 on the clients (it's supposed to work on XP and Vista but we're moving everything to 7 so I haven't investigated that).

There are 6 people total and only 4 of them would require to connect from off-site.

UAG DA may not be worth the extra cost for only four users. If you already have a VPN solution you'll definitely want to weigh those options.

Another question: Would it be possible to have Microsoft Office only installed on Computer A and all the other computers would be able to run it like they would if it was installed on their own computer?

Short answer: No. This can be done using either a Remote Desktop Services, Citrix or Microsoft App-V...all which require a server. You still have to purchase CALs for each user that accesses Office. Again, your environment is small enough that it doesn't justify the cost and it really won't simplify things that much (it'll actually add complexity).