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Cloud Computing for small business

  • 27-08-2014 8:38am
    #1
    Tefral
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,396 ✭✭✭


    Looking for some advice before we roll in the outside IT guys.

    Basically we have an office with 5 computers all with their own harddrives and all these computers are connected via a router to a network Harddrive.

    We call this the projects folder.

    In here we save all our documents etc. On fridays I create a backup of this to an external USB as a just in case.

    We were looking at something like office365 to stop the use of local drives as having files on them and then having to rely on the fact everyone saves their files to the network.

    Looking through the office365 it doesnt say outright that there will be a central place to access files. Can anyone confirm if that is the case.

    Basically we want a virtual recreation of the system we have so that it can be accessed anywhere. We also use programmes that are not offices based such as cad and the ability to open these files will have to be retained.

    Any advice on the matter?


Comments

  • #2
    Mr. G
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 4,621 Mod ✭✭✭✭Mr. G


    cronin_j wrote: »
    Looking for some advice before we roll in the outside IT guys.

    Basically we have an office with 5 computers all with their own harddrives and all these computers are connected via a router to a network Harddrive.

    We call this the projects folder.

    In here we save all our documents etc. On fridays I create a backup of this to an external USB as a just in case.

    We were looking at something like office365 to stop the use of local drives as having files on them and then having to rely on the fact everyone saves their files to the network.

    Looking through the office365 it doesnt say outright that there will be a central place to access files. Can anyone confirm if that is the case.

    Basically we want a virtual recreation of the system we have so that it can be accessed anywhere. We also use programmes that are not offices based such as cad and the ability to open these files will have to be retained.

    Any advice on the matter?

    Office 365 takes in email, calendaring, one drive etc all into one. It would do what you want it to do. If it's just space you're after, look into Dropbox.

    How much space is required here?

    If it's pretty large files you're uploading, make sure your connection can handle it. Especially for cad.


  • #3
    Tefral
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,396 ✭✭✭Tefral


    Mr. G wrote: »
    Office 365 takes in email, calendaring, one drive etc all into one. It would do what you want it to do. If it's just space you're after, look into Dropbox.

    How much space is required here?

    If it's pretty large files you're uploading, make sure your connection can handle it. Especially for cad.

    Ideally id need a communal space of 1TB with the option of adding another terabyte down the line.


  • #4
    Ctrl Alt Del
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 357 ✭✭Ctrl Alt Del


    You mentioned CAD files...do you expect to open a CAD file with XLinks and cross references off an online cloud provider !?
    You re looking for to improve your business or making it worse ?
    What type of internet connection do you have AND many lines coming in to your office !??

    Option 1:cost effective
    Get your self a NAS box,RAID1,4 2TB hard drives.
    Configure it for your network
    Configure NAS local users accounts and clone them from your login PCs
    Enable guest account on shares that are non critical
    Work off that box.

    Option 2:compromise price/effective
    Alternatively,buy a small HP Server Hardware,Microsoft Server 2012 Foundation and set up a small domain with your PCs/users.

    Option3:i need more info to give you best option ! :)

    With Office365 you have One Drive and/or SharePoint sites,where you can replicate,with a little bit of work,your internal file server folders structure.


    Also,i highly advise you to get few more hard drives and run daily / weekly /monthly backups.
    Run a full weekly,lets say on Monday,take that hard drive away off the office.
    Insert a daily drive and run a backup only for files that have been changed since the last full backup,ie on monday.
    Also,a monthly backup.
    Keep drives offsite and safe,some backup software has built-in encryption.

    General rule: backup your backup ! :)
    Same,for me are two types of hard drives:the ones that have failed and others that will fail !

    Have fun...


  • #5
    micosoft
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,370 ✭✭✭micosoft


    If you are looking to save/retrieve CAD files I'd suggest not using a standard cloud storage file service. Simply put, it will not perform well. Check out the CAD specific solutions from your CAD software vendor. These services understand CAD, do things like workflow and approval built in, and perform better from a speed perspective. http://www.autodesk.com/360-cloud


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