Suggestions for file sharing

Hi everyone,

I've been asked to come up with a technology solution for a small startup company. They are not looking for anything too complicated, just a simple way to share data and ensure data they create on their remote machines is replicated to this central location. There are only four users as of now, but they would like a solution that would be scalable if they happened to add additional employees at a later date.

My first thought was to build a Windows Server 2008 R2 File Server/VPN Server protected by a security appliance (probably something cheap and simple like a Sonicwall) and host it at our site. The positives from this solution would be:

1) Handling backup myself; quick backups; ability to do offsite backups
2) More comfort with physical and logical security
3) Very comfortable with MS Server
4) Previous versions, offline files, GPOs, etc
5) Update management with WSUS
6) Mapped drives

I don't want to completely ignore the possibility of doing this in the "cloud". It would be nice to have the the 24/7 uptime of a hosted solution. I haven't done much in this area, so I'd be open to suggestions as to the advantages over a physical implementation.

The features from box.net are pretty slick and impressive. Anyone have any experience with that?

Any thoughts or comments would be much appreciated.

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Comments

apexgtp

I would probably stick with Simple file sharing.

remyforbes777

Look into something like DropBox.

ajs1976

what about a terminal server?

I would probably use vpn to the firewall device instead of using Windows VPN.

Slowhand

Depending on the amount of data you need to back up, using something like Dropbox would probably do it for you. A freebie account to try it out gives you 2GB, but you can get 50GB for $99/year or 100GB for $199/year. What the software does is add a "dropbox" folder to your My Documents directory, or let you choose another folder to sync up, and automatically synchronizes files as you drop them into or take them out of that folder. You can also access the files from a web interface.

hypnotoad

Haven't used dropbox, but Windows Live Mesh is pretty cool. https://www.mesh.com/welcome/default.aspx -- tell it what folders to sync and it makes sure they're up to date on all your computers. Not really a file server, but still worth mentioning i guess.

demonfurbie

+1 dropbox

i use it daily for personal use on my droid and pcs

edit: if ya dont liek the idea of using dropbox you could always use a nas and have vpn on the sonicwall, it would be over all cheaper on hardware cost

nas being about 200 (depending on size/features) and sonicwall with firewall and vpn being about (500), how ever in not totally sure that its a firewall and vpn or just vpn, not a sonic wall guy

Slowhand

hypnotoad wrote: »

Haven't used dropbox, but Windows Live Mesh is pretty cool. https://www.mesh.com/welcome/default.aspx -- tell it what folders to sync and it makes sure they're up to date on all your computers. Not really a file server, but still worth mentioning i guess.

I like Mesh as well, and I believe it's part of the Windows Live Essentials pack. I haven't looked into it, but is there an option to upgrade the amount of space you get with your Skydrive?

Everlife

Great suggestions everyone. I will demo through Dropbox today and check it out.

I agree with the suggestion of the VPN to the Sonicwall rather than to the Windows box, but I've heard the limitations of the Sonicwall don't allow for a user to log on directly to the domain and mapping drives via GPO won't work correctly. Has anyone done this successfully?

The VPN to NAS is actually a really creative idea.

Thanks everyone!

rwmidl

What about something like Windows SBS or Windows Home Server? With WHS, you can create user accounts on it, back up computers as well as have shared folders that users can store data plus you can "share" those folders with other users as need be. Plus, WHS has a web interface that users can log in to remotely. The WHS software itself is under $100, and 1tb and up drives are not that expensive. The downside is WHS does not integrate in to AD (not really sure about SBS).

You mentioned Drop Box, with that you are relying on a third party. And didn't Drop Box just have a major outage not long ago?

remyforbes777

I never heard about any outage recently at Dropbox, I guess the biggest concern would be, did they lose anyone's data? Relying on a third party isn't always a bad thing. They are set up for things that small shops aren't such as single points of failure. With a VPN/NAS, or a VPN,SONICWALL solution, any one of those goes down and there goes your whole file sharing environment.

Paperlantern

I would probably go a Server 2008 implementation with file sharing. Get a nice big 2TB to 4TB volume (depending on WHAT they are saving, maybe more, who knows). Set up AD so its COMPLETELY scalable with a startup script to make a home drive for each user on the server's RAID array volume. They can save anything they want to that drive and have it be available to them when logged in to any of the company's 4 computers. Other shares can be available to all employees if needed.

With all that room and only 4 employees, roaming profiles may even be a possibility.

A simple external firewire drive, or a NAS would be fine for backups for a good long time as well. This solution, with software and hardware would run well under $2000 depending on how much server you want to give them.

rwmidl

remyforbes777 wrote: »

I never heard about any outage recently at Dropbox, I guess the biggest concern would be, did they lose anyone's data? Relying on a third party isn't always a bad thing. They are set up for things that small shops aren't such as single points of failure. With a VPN/NAS, or a VPN,SONICWALL solution, any one of those goes down and there goes your whole file sharing environment.

What Do I Do When Dropbox Goes Down?