So, as some of you might know, I manage a small/medium tourism business. As well as GM, I’m also the IT Manager (and Safety Manager, Training Manager, Head Barista, Chief Toilet Cleaner, etc etc. You get the idea…)
I know we’ve got some super clever people here, and I know just enough to get myself into trouble. So, in the interests of “why pay an expert to do something, when I can do it myself in 5x the time” I thought I might try to revamp our IT systems… So, I’m seeking advice.
Our setup is pretty simple: cat-6 right through the building, coming to a passive bay and then to a 16 port SMC Switch. That’s hooked to an ASUS DSL-AC55U that provides our Wifi and incoming VDSL. That all seems to work just fine for us, so not looking to change too much there.
Computer-wise, we have four, and looking to add a fifth (laptop). There’s also a small NAS that I have setup as backup destinations for a couple of important databases that live on one of the PCs. The PCs themselves all function pretty much independently, with a tiny bit of file sharing to what I call the “main” computer. Really that’s just for convenience though. Important files live on our MS365 OneDrive/Sharepoint, so those can be accessed from multiple points. Email is through our web provider and works fine (no shared calendars though).
Finally, we get to the point(s): is it worth adding a small server or similar to host a file share, or is that not likely to add any value over OneDrive? What else could I do with a server that I can’t do currently? I did run a headless media server for a few years at home, so I’m vaguely familiar with the concepts and SSH etc.
Then, email: I’d love to have shared calendars (particularly so I can get my work calendar on my phone) - if I shifted my email across to MS365 (presumably I can keep our domain?) then would that add that capability or add any other value?
Anyways, this is mostly a thought exercise at this point, as I sit here in the office on a Saturday, while it’s sunny out and my kids and wife are out having fun lol. Thanks for listening!
As much as I hate it as a self-hosting enthusiast, I probably have to agree with @[email protected]. Unless you’re willing to spend some time (not a lot) on maintenance regularly (this is the important bit) - it’s going to backfire. Cloud is easier.
Having said that, this is the perfect time to establish the foundational attitude towards IT solutions at the company. Cloud is good for massive scaling, but it’s an absolute ripoff at running something all the time. Proprietary vendor lock-in is a pain that inevitably rears its ugly behind at the worst possible moment. So:
Cheers - I’m already so time-poor that’s it’s not funny! So yeah, I think cloud is definitely the answer. Will check out Nextcloud again though - haven’t played with that in 5 or 6 years
I like Nextcloud! But the funny thing is I don’t use it for the cloud file experience, but for the apps. Some things I use it for:
These things all use the file storage in Nextcloud, but I don’t typically access the storage directly.
Also I agree with the others, for something business critical and for someone time poor the cloud options “just work”.
Nextcloud is fun to play with though. But it’s temperamental. E.g. every time I’ve got behind on major updates and accidentally tried updating to two major versions at once (using the docker “latest” tag), it always fails irreparably and I have to restore from a backup. Normally the updates are smooth but if I forget this issue then I suddenly find myself with an hour or two of work to get it running again. I’ve had to implement a “no nextcloud updates just before bedtime” rule.
Ooh, I need a decent recipes repository - currently use Keep but it’s getting unwieldy. Might have to check that out for home use!
There’s a standardised format that many sites use. If they do, you can enter a URL and it will download the recipe, image and all. It works pretty well. Can’t do external sharing like some dedicated solutions but works pretty well for me.