StarWind Software

I got an async replication partnership created to a cloud node(other one probably failed because I was trying windows 2008, 2012 cloud node worked just fine)

is there a requirement for 2 public ip addresses here, shouldn't the internal node just push the DR sync?
can an async be mounted read only, for copying vm's off onto a seperate location for backup testing, and cloud DR scenarios?
should cluster share volumes be used here?

is there a requirement for 2 public ip addresses here, shouldn't the internal node just push the DR sync?

Currently they should be in the same subnet.

can an async be mounted read only, for copying vm's off onto a seperate location for backup testing, and cloud DR scenarios?

Yes, sure.

should cluster share volumes be used here?

Not at all.

decided to standardize on a vpn technology for these type scenarios, hamachi is nice.

Sounds good to me! Thanks for sharing!