Advice - small business IT needs...
Advice - small business IT needs...
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!
Move your email to 365 if you’re doing licensing there already. You’ll be able to make shared mailboxes to your hearts content. This may be a minor increase to your existing licensing with Microsoft but probably worth it. You’ll offset the cost by dropping your current hosting provider and maybe even get some more Microsoft features while you’re at it.
I’d recommend not putting any servers on site if you don’t have them already. Especially if you’re already using overdrive and Sharepoint. If you need something like a more traditional file share look into azure files.
Servers mean maintenance, security, availability and life cycle management. You’re in a position where nothing to migrate means going straight cloud. Microsoft can provide everything you need and the cost may seem high but it’s worth not having the on premises headache.
Cheers, that seems in line with my current thinking, great to have that backed up. Will check out Azure
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:
- Nextcloud - file sharing, calendar, contacts. Also a ton of other stuff, but we don't care about it now.
- Postfix+opendkim+opendmarc+spamassassin+postfwd+dovecot is the email solution I use. Sounds daunting, but I found it to be the easiest to maintain as all the moving parts are small individually. I avoid "all-in-one" solutions as they always manage to cock things up during upgrades. I'm also running this on a rolling distro so I never ever have to go through the utter bollocks that's a major version upgrade.
- OpenLDAP - I'm only looking into setting this one up for myself, and it's an absolute overkill for a company that has 5 users; pretty much everything integrates with it, though.
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:
- I've disabled Google's location history and use Phonetrack. I can track where my phone is via Nextcloud and see it on a map, plus history.
- I use the Recipes app for loading recipes in. The actual recipies are in a standard format stored in a folder in Nextcloud (easy transportability in case it stops being supported), but there's a nice front end that lets you group recipes by category, tag them, etc. And a couple of Android apps to choose from that connect to Nextcloud and show the recipes, which I use when I'm actually cooking.
- I also use the Task manager (synced to the Tasks.org app), I use Nextcloud as the sync server for Joplin, and also have a kanban board where I put things that I need to do from a technical angle (and then ignore them).
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.
Unless you're in a position to scale up majorly in the near future, and need systems in place for a hundred employees, don't overthink it. Get yourself a second NAS for all of your critical data, and keep it airgapped from the rest of the network except for your weekly backups.
I'd look into using google for your email and calendar service also, as it has good integration between email and calendars, plus you can share calendars between people.
Cheers, no significant scaling in our near (or middle) future, so good advice there!
I don't really have anything else to add that hasn't already been said, so I will just leave you with the route I ended up taking.
I decided upon Google Workspace. The price vs convenience is very high, and I personally have no problems using either Microsoft or Google office software. Google admin is easy for users, and you can easily set up aliases which point to different email addresses. For example, sales@ and info@ can all point to axisential@, and it handles return email addresses as well. I don't know how MS handles this, as I don't have much experience with their enterprise side.
Instead of self-hosting a website, storage, etc, for many of the reasons outlined elsewhere in the comments, I went with Google for file storage and Shopify for the web-store. The cost you pay is more than made up for the fewer man-hours of running a system yourself, and the security built in to the platforms. I have experience with Magento, and I will never use it again.
Cheers, good insight there.
So, this is what I do for a living. I work in Enterprise land these days (thousands of users and servers), but I spent a lot of time in SME and non-profit land also.
There are three main paths:
- Self hosted
- Microsoft
Self hosted looks like the cheapest one, but unless you have a person actually doing regular IT, it's the most expensive. One phishing attack and your files are encrypted/held to ransom. Without IT being there to restore from your regular backups, you are dead in the water. I would not recommend this path if your intent is to set-and-forget.
Microsoft is the benchmark. Everyone knows Office and Outlook, the product is mature and integrates perfectly into Windows, the most popular OS.
Google's product does pretty much the same stuff, and is easier to manage for a middling IT user. It does some things a bit differently to Microsoft though, and your users may hate the Google browser-based office apps. If they can adapt though, id normally recommend Google for a small business.
Both these will allow you to centrally manage users and files. Both will handle restoring files from backup with no maintenance work from you. Both have video conferencing and calendar/email sharing. Both will let you use your own domain.
Regardless of which you select, I recommend having an MSP on retainer for IT stuff. Just knowing you have IT experts a phone call away is as valuable as insurance. Some of them are cheap to retain and charge by the hour.
I know my rate was 🇦🇺$150/hour when I worked with small businesses 8-10 years ago. No idea what today's NZ rate is, but that hopefully gives you a ballpark.
Cheers for this, that certainly aligns with other advice (and, if I'm honest, my own thinking, even though I'd love to go down the self hosted route)
I already have a subscription to MS365 (which is used for Word, Excel and OneDrive only) - would that already do what I need, or are there bolt on products to look into?
Will look into support options - we're rural, so there's a ”local" guy we use for hardware issues, but could be good to supplement him with an online expert.
Your M365 subscription is a personal one, I assume? The personal plan is just basically Office applications on a SaaS license.
The Business plans are different. They come with more features like exchange, sharepoint, Entra ID authentication to devices. For what you are after, this is what you want - assuming you go the Microsoft path. But yeah, they cost a lot more. It's 🇦🇺$32.90/user/month (if you pay annually) for the full suite. Not sure whether NZ has different pricing, the site only shows me AUD.
Meanwhile, the Google Workspace starter plan has similar features (if smaller disk quotas) for less than a third of that price (You can upgrade easily if you find the quotas are too stifling for your business. This is why I usually recommend Google for small businesses. Also, Chromebooks are cheap and a doddle to support if you can do all your business inside a browser.
Don't fall for the trap of getting Google for the first year or so, with the intent of going to Microsoft later. It that's your intent, swallow the price difference and just get Microsoft from the start. It'll be cheaper than managing a migration from one to the other down the track.
As for your MSP: they don't need to be in-person. In fact, I usually supported my clients remotely. Even if I was on an on-site visit for a client, I might have been on the phone/video chat with another client. This is all pre-pandemic. It's just the nature of that work to be remote most of the time. If you don't have any actual infrastructure in the office, there is no need to go visit. Particularly if you can handle your own laptop support.