Apologies if this is a dumb/obvious question, but I've been surprised at how complicated what I'd hoped was a simple transition is turning out to be. Disclaimer: I'm a Mac/Linux guy so am not familiar with the Windows Server world (though I grew up a Windows user, so am literate in that sense.)
What we have currently in our small office: 3 users from our Accounting department use RDC to connect to a Windows 7 machine sitting in the back room. They each run an instance of QuickBooks Enterprise from within that RDC window and everything works smoothly.
The problem: This is an extremely brittle setup. I don't trust that (now-ageing) piece of hardware, there's no reliable backup system other than Dropbox, which is flakey on a shared box like that, and when out of the office, it's very difficult to administer. Yes, it works, but I'm trying to think ahead.
What I'd hoped would be simple to do: Simply move that machine to a virtual server and replicate the setup, but with nightly snapshots and simplicity in adding block storage, etc. I picked Windows Azure since, I presumed, MS would provide the best "virtual Windows" experience.
What I've discovered: For some reason, Microsoft has made it OBSCENELY complicated to do this. They point me to FAQs littered with acronyms about service-provider licensing, how they do and don't support what I want, about buying client licenses, etc. etc. etc. And when I tried to set this up using Windows Server 2012, I've found 100-step tutorials on setting up Windows RDC gateways, etc. etc. I'm now a week into this project and I feel like I've fallen into a rathole and am now going about this the wrong way.
My question: What's the most straightforward way (or is there one??) to setup a simple virtual Windows host, allow 2 – 3 users to login simultaneously via RDC, and run the app they need to run on that central (virtualized) machine? I don't need each user to have a full virtual environment or have crazy permissions or such. I just want everyone to login to the same box and run the same program (QuickBooks Enterprise) and be able to do that simultaneously.
Many thanks in advance!
Best Answer
Ultimately you might be a little bit screwed here - you have to deal with Microsoft licensing to do what you want legally (you can stick your head in the sand and ignore the licensing considerations too -- many companies do that - but to keep it kosher you need to get the client licenses).
The licensing issues are between you and Microsoft (we don't do that here).
From a technical standpoint what you're proposing seems sound, though I would also suggest you consider this configuration:
Install QuickBooks on some server you can reliably back up; Store the QuickBooks DB there.
(I'm not a fan of Azure/Snapshots for backups by the by - you want real, reliable backups that you have control over in case Azure goes away and you need to recover to a physical box in your office...)
Install QuickBooks client software on the users' workstations.
This avoids the remote desktop licensing, but it means you need to keep all the workstations up to date.
Another option to consider to avoid the server issues entirely is QuickBooks Enterprise Hosting Solutions - basically this is "QuickBooks Online for the Enterprise customer" & equivalent to what joeqwerty suggested but I believe you get all the Enterprise features/functionality (you'd have to check that with your Intuit rep though).