I have one main site with several servers an a 2008/2012 environment. I have 4 remote sites that are physically close (a few miles apart) and are all connected to the main site by 20meg fiber on a private network. At each of the remote locations I have a windows server that users log in to and where their files and apps are located.

There are many considerations to answering this question. But the first thing I am wondering is do I really need a server at each location? Users are just logging in to this server for permissions and a vast majority of my users are only using word, excel and email.

I am really interested in figuring out if I need servers at these locations. $3,000 to $4,000 per server every 3-5 years, licensing, administration...

I know there are other considerations - speed, redundancy, if my link to the main site goes down the users have nothing. But I just am not convinced I need servers at these locations.