IT on the move

[Soundinmind]

Hi all,

Im sitting with a complex issuse that isnt so bad for some but Im trying to do this wise.

My company is growing beyond the office building and into other countries, Im trying to find a way to keep control over our IT systems and connect everyone effectively. I looked at Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 and it looks great but Im not sure if it will work cause most of our users will be only able to access the network via internet.

What Im trying to do is:
- Manage our IT systems (updates, anti virus and more)
- Run our accounting system on location but have access to it from anywhere in the world
- Be able to do file transfers securing between ourselves
- Access our email accounts with full outlook features from anywhere
- Have certain files backed up daily on to a server

Now, Ive find a few ways round this with Office 365, Axxes5 and Intune but is there another way that everything can be in one? Only reason I dont think we can use SBS 2011 is cause we not all based on the network, in fact 80% of us arent.

[Dave A]

Have you looked at Google apps?

At $50 a year per user it's really gaining traction in the USA - and apparently why MS started pursuing Office 365. I'm planning to take a closer look at it myself.

[Soundinmind]

All take a look at google apps now, one of my problems is trying to get the signatures for our emails. Web based (Webmail) doesnt allow you to add it unlucky. Im going to try office 365 now and see how it works. Let me know if you find anything interesting Dave

[Chrisjan B]

I THINK I have seen an option in Google Mail settings to add a signature a few days ago....

[Neville Bailey]

- Manage our IT systems (updates, anti virus and more)

- Run our accounting system on location but have access to it from anywhere in the world

The are a few simple and free options, like VPN, LogMeIn and TeamViewer (my personal favourite). All of these will, however, temporarily take control of whichever local computer you log onto, as though you were sitting in front of it.

Be able to do file transfers securing between ourselves

You can either use TeamViewer to do file transfers, but a more elegant solution is to use Dropbox to create a shared folder or folders that synchronises any files in those folders between nominated computers.

Access our email accounts with full outlook features from anywhere

If you switch to web-based Gmail, you will have access to all your emails, contacts and calendar from anywhere in the world. I made this move a few years ago and I haven't looked back. You can piggy-back your domain email address onto your Gmail account so that it doesn't look like you are using Gmail.

Have certain files backed up daily on to a server

You can use Dropbox to do that, or you can the IronTree online backup system (drop me a line for more details, as I am a dealer).




Sent from my BlackBerry 8520 using Tapatalk

[Neville Bailey]

I THINK I have seen an option in Google Mail settings to add a signature a few days ago....

Yes, this has been possible in Gmail for a number of months now.

Sent from my BlackBerry 8520 using Tapatalk

[irneb]

We're also in the same boat. 3 international branches, each with their own servers - which need updating between each other (i.e. a distributed file system), or at least that's what we're aiming at. Then we also need emails, calendaring, etc. to work between branches, but also as roam-able (since many of our employees may be on site for months at a time). But then we can' always use VPN connections, since some of the countries in which our projects reside have strict internet policies (not always circumventable). GMail is a good option for at least the email side of things, though we tend to want to keep our own data though

And no, we simply cannot use our major file types on GDocs. The files become just too large to have to load over a usually slow internet connection (these are CAD/Graphics/BIM so several megs up to hundreds of megs is not strange for one single file). We constantly run into situations of not being able to even email these files (as they're simply too large), in which case we have a ftp server with username access for outside parties (consultants, contractors, clients, etc.). Even on some larger projects we "should" install a local PC as server, though usually the employees on site don't modify the documents as much as reading them for checking purposes.

We still haven't got all this in place, we're looking at some alternatives. E.g. the Zimbra servers look like a good alternative for email and collaboration, at least in comparison to Exchange. Then the ZFS file system seems to be able to synchronize itself over several servers, though here we might have to look something which is an "actual" Distributed File System. At least for part of it.