Server 2016 Essentials - CALS & RDS

[Tomsk]

I've had differing opinions on whether CALS are needed to connect to Windows server 2016 Essentials.

AFAIK CALS are not needed, but there is a 25 device/50 user limit
Am I right?

RDS - Remote Desktop Services
Is this for a user/admin to remote in and control the server? We will need this for whomever we get to support our server/network.

Or is it for the server admin to remote in to a desktop on the network and control it?

 

[Caged]

You don't need to worry about RDS CALs if the remote access is used only for administration of the device.

What problem are you trying to solve where you think something running Server 2016 Essentials is the answer?

 

[Tomsk]

Thanks.

We're upgrading from a small 4 PC peer-to-peer network to about a dozen PCs/laptops.

Until the recently the network was running fine, but it's getting more difficult to manage with the increase in devices.
We'll also be changing the PCs so they're identical and hopefully we'll be able to implement hot-desking.

Essentials will give us some room to expand without spending too much.

I have no experience with Windows Server, but we will have external IT support, and they'll probably want to remote in to administer the server.