Business Resource Management over internet; Dont know where to post this?

[Dillusion]

Hey guys, haven't posted here in over a year, school and work is overwhelming me!

I work for a business, a chain of bars to be exact, that is expanding from 1 to 2 to 3 locations. I work closely with the owners to better utilize their technology/pos systems/networks etc so they can manage their assets and know how the locations are doing.

Right now, we have one location with a main computer that houses all of our document templates, information, etc; and a second location is opening. I have a feeling we're going to run into huge redundancies in information and it's going to be hell to create figures, forecasts, and business trends with the business info scattered in two to three different cities.

What I want to be able to do, ideally, is to have a backend interfaced system available for login by any created user by any computer with internet, and any business file can be accessed, added, or subtracted from this 'database' or 'backend' or 'server'.

The easiest way to do this I can think of is to just have an FTP created on one of the computers at one location that has a static IP and create a folder, etc, place all the files, and have one login for everyone....

What I'm hoping is that there's a pre-made product from a company that you all know about which allows me to do the following:

- Install product on remote static server computer
- Access product from web/internet
- Create users (With or without levels of access)
- Allow files to be accessed, added, organized, categorized, and removed at any time by users
- Allow users to input information into fields in real-time via the product/program and save them to the product/server (IE- Right now we're using excel sheets, if excel isnt available on a host computer being used to access the server, it will still open in the program remotely once a user is logged in, and can be edited by them)

I remember products like this back when I used to work at officemax. Nothing was stored on the computers, everything was remote.

Thanks

 

[marley1]

why not just have one main server and some VPN action? or could have a server at each location using Site to Site VPN with DFS or similar.

i believe YeOlde does some work for a chain restaurant

 

[Dillusion]

I'm trying to centralize the hardware to one location for redundancy and security perposes. Also trying to minimize costs and work through the internet that each location will have.

 

[marley1]

so then a site to site vpn would work fine.

main site has server and firewall/router
each other site has firewall/router that ties itself into the main site

then you can browse files etc....

 

[Captain Colonoscopy]

I would say site-to-site VPNs would be ideal here. You could use thin clients that login to Terminal Services at the main site and not have to worry about bandwidth or files being scattered all over the place, they would all stay at the central office/data center.

 

[Dillusion]

Each location already has their own computers.

Do I need to buy a dedicated firewall router for the location with the data only?

I need to isntall php5 and MYSQL as well. Once those are installed, I can just type in my static IP and be able to access the PC correct?

I've never done any VPN work before, just internal networks.