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OT: Cloud IT structure for a start-up?

Folks,

Right now we are using an email provider and Dropbox for our start-up company. However, we'd like to get a more integrated solution that has all under one roof and preferably does not engage in vendor-lock. For example, a solution that requires MS-Outlook is not a good solution.

What we need:

  1. Email for a few guys. Accessible also from the road via laptop or smart phones.

  1. Calendar and task sync'ing. I am not such a fan of that since I perfer paper for this but the others would like it.

  2. Web site hosting.

  1. File storage and collaboration in an organized fashion, automatic backups and all that. Access possible via smart phones.

  2. Secure (encrypted) data transfer between server and our computers.

  1. Automatic backups, including a routing option for that to one of our computers.

  2. The whole thing needs to be controllable for setup and changes by people with limited or almost no IT know-how.

  1. No onerous requirements on the PCs such as Java, Active-X or wide permissions for auto-updates.

I've looked at a few packages such as these:

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Microsoft seems expensive and you get sort of a leased access to their office suite. That probably justifies the high price but we don't need it and we do not want to pay monthly leases for people who never use it. Also, they seem to require MS-Outlook and that's a non-starter.

As for 1&1 I use one of their smaller web hosting deals sind about a decade, happy with it. But I don't know how easily sich a big system is maintainable by non-IT guys such as me.

Any comments? Other ideas?

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg
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cloud storage with security?

Cheers

BTW Office online has a Webmail interface that is pretty good. You can use outlook but it is not required. They do have a trial.

Reply to
Martin Riddle

Get your own Virtual Server. I have mine for several years, it's less than $50 per year. I haven't move my domain over, but mostly for http and ftp. For a company, you would want to have your domain on it.

Web mail & Imap server. I have my Android email account syncing with it.

Need more detail on what you want to do.

No problem at all.

Possible, we can write an Android App to do that. I wrote one using http and ftp client before, it's easy to do.

VPN.

Backup the entire Virtual server in a single compressed file, then ftp to your local computer.

You can do most with scrips and/or html interfaces, but i prefer secure shell anyway.

Web browser, telnet, ssh & ftp clients only.

Doesn't sound like you really need them, if you can just do http & ftp. Perhaps with a bulletin board package for files and message sharing.

I'll set up everything for you.

Reply to
edward.ming.lee

pany.

Long time 1and1 client here. Very satisfied. Will meet your requirements, with few caveats:

For calendars, you'll probably want their Exchange email (not the HTML web- based email included free with their standard Linux and Windows hosting). The standard email product will work fine, but you can't really share calen dars & contacts very easily without the upgrade to Exchange. It's hosted t oo, so no day-to-day effort on your part. Outlook works fine with 1and1's email products.

For the file storage, 1and1 offers that - but it's pretty limited.

2GB, and it's mostly designed for "store-once, access many". Hard to manip ulate, and really doesn't behave like a hard drive or cloud. We tried it, and were unhappy. Got a GoFlex network drive instead.

What does your start-up do? I'm asking because if you need a ticketing system too, it helps to integrat e all of that from the start - in which case, feel free to email me offline and I can give you several pointers.

Reply to
mpm

Hi,

I have a copy of Windows Server 2012 thats been running on Amazon AWS free tier for about 5 months straight or so (on the free tier it doesnt cost a dime as the name implies :). It is a very limited instance for the free tier, barely enough to run windows server 2012 but the instances are scalable to whatever you need for CPU/storage/networking etc. The security issue of the cloud is a problem, but its very convenient to have all the data etc accessible on one virtual PC. You can pay some places to host your own physical server too, one here in my city will host a business account for $100 per month, which includes physically putting the server (PC case or rack) at their location, and 10Gbit up/down unlimited transfer. If you install openstack or opencloud (similar to amazon AWS, with even a compatible API option) on that type of setup that could work too maybe..

cheers, Jamie

Reply to
Jamie M

Unless you are running high-end streaming video, you don't need the cost in volved with physical server. For normal web stuff, virtual server is good enough, for less than $50 per year (not month), you can get the look and fe el of a real server (yes, with root account) with:

20G storage 10G bandwidth 256MB virtual ram etc.

You can pay more for additional resources, but i never had the need to go b eyond the basic. I have mail/apache/php/mySQL etc. on it.

Reply to
edward.ming.lee

I had a similar, if more limited requirement, but issues about data security, control and costs led me to get a business internet feed and host everything in house. We are hosting on a Solaris server with zones, which provides all the network services for free (well, other than setting up and admin) and a second server on an isolated subnet providing mysql services. Yes, it is more work, but does provide flexibility in terms of changing config or adding services at any time. You can also get in and fix stuff when it goes wrong. Could just as easily have done the job with Freebsd and jails, or Linux, but it was easier to work with what we were familiar with.

I guess 7) above might overrule such an approach, but might be worth looking at, if you have net / Linux savvy people in the organisation. Start with a simple system and build on it. I would forget windows anything for critical infrastructure / webservers.

There's no way that I would trust any of my business or data to cloud services, even more so with the recent revelations about privacy/nsa/government snooping Stuff like client data confidentiality, access, problem resolution time, etc etc, need careful consideration if you are planning to buy any services...

Chris

Chris

Reply to
chris

....

Many many reasons I would not do such a thing (cloud services), must get a page setup soon with my standard long discourse on it.

In short unless you have a legal team and a large business risk analysis team, dont bother.

--
Paul Carpenter          | paul@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk 
    PC Services 
  Raspberry Pi Add-ons 
 Timing Diagram Font 
  GNU H8 - compiler & Renesas H8/H8S/H8 Tiny 
 For those web sites you hate
Reply to
Paul

Putting your intellectual property in the hands of nameless strangers, God knows where, sounds like business suicide to me.

--
"Design is the reverse of analysis" 
                   (R.D. Middlebrook)
Reply to
Fred Abse

+1

Then, having to *pay* to have access to *your* data! :-/

OTOH, it is appealing to folks who are trying to figure out how to do away with (often bloated, inefficient and INEFFECTIVE) IT departments.

Reply to
Don Y

Until said place has an incident like Buncefield and the backups are only on same site of flattened building.

If your building is flattened you have lots of issues as well, but should have some off-site backups as well.

Let alone issues about then being held to 'ransom' by the contract clauses ever changing.

--
Paul Carpenter          | paul@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk 
    PC Services 
  Raspberry Pi Add-ons 
 Timing Diagram Font 
  GNU H8 - compiler & Renesas H8/H8S/H8 Tiny 
 For those web sites you hate
Reply to
Paul

Hi Don, Fred..others (to take the other side.)

OK, for me security means not losing my data. I don't really care if some one steals my CAD or Eagle files. (If you're a customer, you can have whatever you need.) So as an egg in another basket, storage-wise, it might be OK. (I recall trying to go back to tape backup one day...painful.)

George H.

Reply to
George Herold

I'd talk with a local IT company to set this up. I wouldn't put my data on a cloud service. Other people can tap into that. Another problem with using the cloud is that when things go bad and the bills are not getting paid you lose access to your data.

I'd setup a local server with multiple security levels so people can only access what they really need. Usually public, project and management is sufficient. I'd look into Microsoft Small Business server with Exchange. I think this can do everything you want without breaking the bank. You may hate MS but when run on decent server hardware (Dell server or HP Proliant) it will work reliable.

The biggest mistake to make here is to also host the website on the local server. Don't do that; just rent web space from one of the many webhosting companies. If you want to tighten security for the remote webmail you can put a filtering proxy (Linux + squid) between the Exchange server and the outside world so only URLs that are allowed get through.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply 
indicates you are not using the right tools... 
nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) 
--------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to
Nico Coesel

There's a *big* difference between using an agency as a

*backup* vs. using it as your "live copy" (even if THEY will maintain separate offsite backups as part of their normal business).

I can push a tarball of to any number of agencies and let it sit there, "safely", as peace-of-mind in case my house/office and safe deposit box *all* are SIMULTANEOUSLY "lost" in a flood, earthquake, etc.

OTOH, having to *access* the "sole" copy of my data through means provided by some agency. E.g., I want to see what the value of R37 is in a particular design and I have to "go online" to view the schematic/parts list/etc. for that design.

"By clicking on the 'View Document' link, you agree to our NEWEST terms of service..."

What do these firms do when/if they decide to "exit the cloud" at some later date? Rebuild an IT/IS department from scratch? Are they sure the "documents" stored in the cloud are still available in a form that can be maintained "off-line"/locally?

Or, if they lose IP connectivity (temporarily)?

Dunno. It just seems like a problem waiting to happen.

YMMV. In Joerg's case, it gives him a way to avoid the need for an IT department. How valuable that is to him only he can say. I don't *enjoy* being my IT/IS department but, at least, I know I can depend on myself to ensure I have everything that I need, *when* I need it.

Reply to
Don Y

Yes, a fiend also mentioned that we probably need Exchange. I'll have to inquire what kind of extra cost that entails. And that it works with non-MS email programs such as Thunderbird.

The cloud server deal they offer seems to come with 100GB. That would be plenty. A backup service costs extra but I'll inquire.

You've got mail.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Thanks, but I am looking for a turn-key solution. Where we can more or less just oplop into the seats. It doesn't have to be free.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Well, very hot stuff won't go on there or only encrypted. It's mostly tech stuff, things that are already IP protected. If someone rips if off it doesn't have much commercial value to them.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Trust me, we won't do that :-)

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

No idea what it is but I will. Thanks.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

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