Core Technology Upgrade Prepared for Jay Fechtel and Sara Nivison
You design homes to be lived in for decades, then you build them so the craft holds up. The servers your team works from every day were never given that kind of plan. This page lays out three ways to rebuild them, tells you plainly which one we'd choose, and shows how each one sets you up for the AI work you're already leaning into.
The short version
Where things stand
It runs a Windows Server version that is now past its support life, the box it lives on is at 97% capacity, and the file sync to OneDrive keeps fighting your team. None of that gets better by waiting.
What we recommend
We call it Ascend hybrid. Your files, apps and logins run on hardware we own and maintain, with a live copy in Dallas. AutoCAD and SketchUp keep opening at full speed from a small server that stays in your office.
What it costs
Nothing to buy, nothing to replace in five years, backups and disaster recovery included. The other two paths are priced on this page too, so you can compare them side by side.
The principle
How you build
How we build
The homes you're known for. Built to be lived in, and built to last.
We know this house
We've managed it for two years, documented it down to the UPS outlets, and rebuilt the backups this spring. Here is the environment this proposal is designed around. We'll confirm the counts with Sara before anything is ordered.
Team
17 users
9 full-time and 8 part-time seats across the office and the field
Workstations
12 on Windows 11
Upgraded last fall, ahead of the Windows 10 deadline
Servers today
6 servers, 2 aging boxes
A Dell running four servers, plus the legacy HP box carrying the oldest one
Microsoft 365
Standard + Copilot
Claude-powered Copilot Cowork live for five of you since June
The apps you build with
AutoCAD · SketchUp
Plus Bluebeam Revu, Sage and QuickBooks. All vendor-supported on every path below
Network and backups
WatchGuard + BDR
Secure remote access, and nightly backups kept both in your office and off site
Why now
Aging software
The server operating systems are past their support life
Your file server runs on an older Windows Server release that no longer receives updates. Moving it onto a current, supported platform is the most important step on this page.
No room left
The main Dell host is at 97% of capacity
1.9 TB of project files and growing. When it fills, AutoCAD saves fail first and the office finds out second.
Licensing gap
The servers are running without Windows Server licenses
A holdover from the previous provider's arrangement. Every path below fixes it, two of them without you buying anything.
Aging hardware
The HP host dropped off the network in February
We recovered it, and we've been moving workloads off it since. It should not be asked to carry another year.
Design
Every path retires the aging servers, licenses everything properly, keeps CAD fast, and ends the sync fight. They differ in what you own, what you rent, and how far they carry you. Pick a sheet to see it on the blueprint.
Use the arrow keys to move between paths
Swipe sideways to see the whole sheet
≈ $26,100 one-time · ≈ $4,900/yr in support subscriptions · no new monthly
What you get
What to weigh
≈ $17,000 one-time (≈ $13,000 with the onboarding credit) · $2,240/mo, replacing today's $310
What you get
What to weigh
≈ $16,300 one-time · ≈ $2,500 to $3,200/mo, usage-based
What you get
What to weigh
Our recommendation
A new server in the office fixes today. Ascend fixes today and stays fixed. Here is what that means in plain terms, and what the on-site number quietly leaves out.
A fixed monthly figure, held for the 36-month term. No $26,500 rebuild in year five (hardware, licenses and the migration labor all over again), no surprise repair when a drive fails on a Tuesday.
Redundant power, generators, cooling and two internet carriers, plus a live copy of everything in Dallas. If the office loses power, your team keeps working from home.
More storage, another server, a new hire: it is a request, not a shopping trip. Capacity is added in the datacenter, usually the same week.
The Copilot connector and, later, a private AI workspace run beside your data on hardware we already own. On-site, every AI step means buying more equipment first.
Three things that will happen to any growing builder, and how each path handles them.
| When this happens | A · On site | B · Ascend hybrid | C · Azure |
|---|---|---|---|
| A storm takes out office power for two days | Servers are down. Nobody can open a file until the lights are back | Files, email and apps stay up. The team works from home or a job site | Stays up, as long as the internet does |
| A drive fails in the main server | Restore from backup. Usually a day, sometimes a weekend | Nobody notices. Storage is redundant and we swap it behind the scenes | Nobody notices |
| You add three people and a new project archive | Buy more drives, maybe more memory, schedule an install | Email us. Capacity is added in the datacenter that week | Add capacity; the meter goes up |
| You want Copilot to search 20 years of plans | Buy a second server to run the AI workspace | Turn it on. The workspace runs beside your files, no purchase | Turn it on; pay by usage |
| Year five arrives | Time to do it all again: hardware, licenses and another migration project, about $26,500 | Nothing changes. We refresh our hardware on our schedule | Nothing changes |
The real difference in cost
≈ $240/mo
That is the true gap between Ascend and an on-site build over five years, once the on-site path includes the same disaster recovery and the full year-five rebuild, labor included.
For about $240 a month, less than $8 a day, the servers move out of the closet and into a datacenter, and the year-five rebuy never comes.
Build
This is how the recommended path goes in. Nothing is torn out before its replacement is standing. Your team keeps working the whole way through, and the switch itself happens on a weekend we choose together.
Before we build anything, we write the plan down and walk it with you.
Your experience One working session with Sara. Nothing changes for the team.
The new environment stands up in Tampa while your current servers keep running.
Your experience Business as usual. Most of this is remote; one short site visit for the cache server.
Final sync, the switch, and a full test pass before Monday morning.
Your experience Log in Monday. Same drive letters, same folders, faster. We're on site that morning.
We stay close for the first month, the way you follow up after move-in.
Your experience The sync fight is over. Files open the same way at the office, at home, and on a job site.
With the foundation right, the AI conversation stops being theoretical.
Your experience A partner planning ahead with you, not a ticket queue.
Live
Five of you have Claude inside Copilot today, and the ask to add the construction managers is already in. The honest limit right now is not the licenses. It's that Copilot can only reason over what it can reach, and your project files live on a server it can't see. The platform underneath decides how far the AI can go.
Running for Jay, Sara, Dave, Kevin and Lauren since June, inside your tenant, under your security controls. Adding more people is a license and an afternoon, on any of the three paths.
We connect your file server to Microsoft's search index so Copilot can find and summarize plans, selections, contracts and correspondence, then put the guardrails around it: data loss prevention, conditional access, and a short session with the team on what to paste where.
Claude-powered Cowork for the people who write, plan and correspond. Live, and expanding.
AI Foundation connects the file server. Works on every path, best on a hosted one where the connector runs next to the data.
On Ascend, a dedicated server beside your files for the deeper work: searching decades of projects, specs and selections in plain language. No hardware to buy when you're ready.
You asked, we answered
Jay's running list, Sara's messages, and the tickets in between. Here they are with straight answers, and a note on which path handles each one best.
AI and productivity
Yes. Each added person is a Copilot license on your Microsoft bill and a few minutes in the admin center. Works on every path. AI Foundation is what makes it useful for project files.
Any pathAI and productivity
Yes. It runs inside your own Microsoft 365 tenant and your data is not used to train anyone's models. Consumer tools like free Gemini are different: fine for generic renderings, not for client specifics.
Already trueAI and productivity
Copilot can only reason over what it can reach. Your drawings, specs and correspondence sit on a legacy server it can't see. A modern platform with a connector fixes that. Ascend adds room for a private AI workspace later.
Best on AscendFiles and performance
GoodSync pushes 1.9 TB of server folders into OneDrive, and OneDrive was never built to carry that. Every path retires GoodSync. The file server becomes the one truth, with proper remote access instead of a sync copy.
Any pathFiles and performance
Not with the hybrid design. Drawings open from a local cache server in your office and replicate to the datacenter in the background. It's the reason we don't recommend a fully hosted setup for a design-build firm.
Solved in B and CFiles and performance
On the hosted paths the server is already reachable from anywhere over the VPN, at datacenter speed, so a remote employee works exactly like someone in the office. No second copy, no waiting for a sync.
Best on AscendFiles and performance
They move to a dedicated application server on whichever path you choose, tested during the cutover weekend before anyone logs in Monday. Both vendors support all three designs.
Any pathSecurity and devices
Microsoft 365 Business Premium adds Intune, so company data on a personal phone can be locked down or wiped without touching personal photos, and laptops are encrypted and managed. The device rollout add-on handles it.
Add-on, any pathSecurity and devices
The impersonation waves are an email and identity problem, not a server one, and we're tightening the anti-spoof rules separately. Business Premium's Defender and the DLP baseline in AI Foundation add the next layer.
Handled alongsideSecurity and devices
Today's real risk is AI making phishing more convincing, which the fundamentals stop. On quantum, Windows Server 2025 already ships the new post-quantum standards. Every path puts you on current, patched systems.
Any pathBackups and cost
Yes. Nightly to an archive box in your office and to an off-site copy in our datacenter, both rebuilt this spring. Ascend adds a live replica in Dallas that can be running within 72 hours, and it's included in the hosting fee.
IncludedBackups and cost
On the on-site path, yes, and you'd buy them again at the next refresh. On Ascend they're a small monthly subscription in your name, and on Azure they're inside the hourly rate. Either way, the licensing gap closes.
Depends on pathProof
We moved our own hosting platform into a new Tampa datacenter this August, five clients at a time, without a missed Monday. The same team and the same runbooks would run your cutover.
Our own platform
Every hosted client migrated across town in planned waves over three weekends. Five clients in one three-hour evening in the biggest wave, with rollback ready and never needed.
Lions World Vision Institute
A 20-year partnership that grew from four employees to nearly 400, with core systems hosted on Ascend and live data feeds that carried through the datacenter move without a gap.
Chappell Roberts
A creative firm running large design files across Mac and Windows. We consolidated their server room and moved their line-of-business database to a modern platform this summer, then wired it to their AI tools.
Investment
Every number below is the number. Labor is fixed for the scope described, hardware is quoted at current pricing and re-confirmed before order, and the monthly figures replace your current $310 hosting line rather than stacking on top of it.
A · Rebuild on site
New hardware in your office. You own it, we run it.
Plus about $4,900 a year in support subscriptions you hold directly. No new monthly to Diversicom.
Hardware is an estimate at current refurbished pricing and is confirmed at order. Dell no longer sells the T550 new; a new-equivalent runs about $35,000.
See it on the blueprintB · Ascend hybrid
Hosted in Tampa, replicated to Dallas, CAD cached locally.
Net new: about $1,930 a month, with nothing to buy and nothing to rebuy.
Ascend onboarding credit: $4,000 applied against the one-time total with a 36-month agreement, bringing it to $12,960.
C · Microsoft Azure
Public cloud, managed by us, metered by Microsoft.
Roughly $1,900 to $2,600 of Azure consumption, including the data your team pulls down every day, plus a $600 management fee.
Estimated from Microsoft's published East US pricing with an allowance for daily CAD traffic. A precise figure comes from the Azure calculator after discovery.
See it on the blueprintNet new spend over five years, beyond what you pay today. The on-site path looks cheapest on its own line. Add the year-five rebuild with its labor and the disaster recovery Ascend already includes, and the gap shrinks to about $240 a month, for a platform you never have to buy again.
A · Rebuild on siteOne-time + subscriptions + the year-five rebuild
≈ $77,100$50,600 plus about $26,500 to rebuild: hardware, licenses and labor
A · On site, like for likeAdd a running off-site replica, as Ascend includes
≈ $114,600Plus about $625 a month for a replica ready to run
B · Ascend hybridOne-time with credit + net new monthly
≈ $128,800Dallas replica and licensing included. Nothing to rebuy
C · Microsoft AzureOne-time + net new monthly at the midpoint
≈ $168,700Varies with usage and Microsoft's pricing. Cross-region recovery is extra
What each path includes, so the numbers above compare like for like.
| What you get | A · On site | B · Ascend hybrid | C · Azure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retires the legacy servers and the HP host | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows Server licensing | You buy ≈ $2,980, rebuy at refresh | Subscription, included in the monthly | Inside the hourly rate |
| AutoCAD and SketchUp at LAN speed | Yes, on the server itself | Yes, via the local cache | Yes, via the local cache |
| Off-site disaster recovery | Archive copy only. A running replica adds ≈ $625/mo | Live Dallas replica, included | Azure Backup; cross-region replica extra |
| Power, cooling, internet redundancy | Your office | Datacenter grade, included | Microsoft's |
| Hardware refresh | Every 5 to 6 years, ≈ $26,500 with labor | Never | Never |
| Room to grow (storage, AI workspace) | Buy more hardware | Add a server, no purchase | Add a server, metered |
| Monthly predictability | Fixed | Fixed | Varies with usage |
| Cutover | One weekend, on site | One weekend, mostly remote | One weekend, mostly remote |
Add-ons on any path: AI Foundation ($3,500 one-time, $450 a month managed) and the device and identity rollout ($250 per device, about $3,000 for your 12). Microsoft 365 Business Premium, which we've discussed, is about $10 more per user per month than Standard and is billed through your existing licensing line.
Straight talk
Transparency up front. The pricing above rests on the assumptions below. We'll confirm each in discovery and review any material change with you before proceeding.
Next steps
Jay, Sara: this is the conversation we said we'd have. Our recommendation is Ascend hybrid, and we're glad to build whichever one you choose. Here's all it takes:
Prepared September 2026 · pricing valid for 60 days from delivery, hardware subject to re-confirmation at order.