SMB resources on the move
-
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller said in SMB resources on the move:
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller said in SMB resources on the move:
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller said in SMB resources on the move:
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
- Do they need central email? If they don't need central email like Exchange, but want their email to appear like a business email, with their domain. Whoever is hosting their domain, usually provides email services at an extra cost.
I'm confused. Yes they need central email. Of course it should be hosted, that's been the case for over a decade. ANd no, you never, ever get it from your domain host. You never bundle services like that. And no hoster offers enterprise email.
I was thinking of something like this, not necessarily from GoDaddy, but just the idea.
Right, so was I. That's exactly what I was warning against that you never, ever, ever do.
Well I'll be honest, I've never even looked into doing things that way. So I don't know any of the shortcomings of doing something that way. That's why I'm asking for community advice on some of these topics.
Dangerous bundling. Giving a vendor that does one thing too much power. Same reason that you never bundle DNS, registration services and hosting together - always three separate providers.
there is no serious business email hoster that does web hosting. There could be, in theory
Probably why things like that look good on the surface. Are there any specifics that you've experienced or heard about which makes them poor in email handling? Like holding you for ransom when they set quotas, randomly purging aged emails which aren't really that old (31 days), etc...
Yes, they lock people in, block them from important features, take away control, etc. The protections and assumptions about Office 365 disappear and you are on your own. They are NOT an O365 partner, they are a reseller using O365 to power their own solution. So you can't get Microsoft help, you can't move to another partner... you are "owned" by GoDaddy and they aren't a business class company. You can't use GoDaddy services for any business function except registration services, which don't require quality hosting. GoDaddy is not a business vendor, they shouldn't even really come up as a discussion point. You would never host a website with them, and that's far more their business than email.
Unlike web, which you can move in a few minutes if a host tries to hold you ransom or lock you in, email is partially storage. So if a vendor isn't flexible and transparent and plays the "owns you" extortion game, they have all the leverage. You have to really be careful who you use for your storage because there is no easy way out once you commit to that.
-
@scottalanmiller said in SMB resources on the move:
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller said in SMB resources on the move:
Funny, this conversation is exactly the counter to the 9-5 thread. These solutions that you want to replace are literally, in nearly every case, only existing in situations where someone brings in a VAR masquerading as a consultant, who sells things to make the vendor happy even though they are terrible solutions for the customer and are so obviously so that it's pathetic that the customer doesn't know enough IT to bust them.
Lol obviously I wouldn't want to sell myself as a VAR. I'm just trying to find ways to save SMBs money while still making the environment highly manageable.
I understand, my point was that in the other thread it was mentioned that it was thought that we were exaggerating that people actually pretend to be consultants while really being a VAR, that the VAR side really influences them to fleece customers, etc. Yet this whole thread is you looking for solutions to exactly that problem... all the customers you know are getting fleeced in this way.
Maybe it's just early but the first half of your post suggests I'm just pretending and really I'm trying to be a VAR. But then the second half suggests I'm trying to help them, because they are getting fleeced.
Maybe a better question would be "I have a business of 10-15 people. They haven't added any new people in 5 years so scaling is slow. What does their network look like as far as on-premises and/or cloud equipment,services,etc? I didn't ask it that way because every network is somewhat similar but a little different, and I didn't want to ask the age old question of "I'm setting up a new network, what should it look like?" Cause I like hearing that much as much as "What's the best AV? Why not RAID5?". Now I'm rambling...
-
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller said in SMB resources on the move:
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller said in SMB resources on the move:
Funny, this conversation is exactly the counter to the 9-5 thread. These solutions that you want to replace are literally, in nearly every case, only existing in situations where someone brings in a VAR masquerading as a consultant, who sells things to make the vendor happy even though they are terrible solutions for the customer and are so obviously so that it's pathetic that the customer doesn't know enough IT to bust them.
Lol obviously I wouldn't want to sell myself as a VAR. I'm just trying to find ways to save SMBs money while still making the environment highly manageable.
I understand, my point was that in the other thread it was mentioned that it was thought that we were exaggerating that people actually pretend to be consultants while really being a VAR, that the VAR side really influences them to fleece customers, etc. Yet this whole thread is you looking for solutions to exactly that problem... all the customers you know are getting fleeced in this way.
Maybe it's just early but the first half of your post suggests I'm just pretending and really I'm trying to be a VAR. But then the second half suggests I'm trying to help them, because they are getting fleeced.
Not what I meant. My point was that customers with fewer than twenty users, with onsite AD and Exchange (especially Exchange) are normally the result of VARs fleecing them. You are looking for a solution because you are finding so many VARs doing this to people.
-
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
"I have a business of 10-15 people. They haven't added any new people in 5 years so scaling is slow."
From a scaling perspective, though in terms of months, not years. If a company is growing so quickly that they need to change system design, they are also making money so fast that they can afford to. But if the growth stops or turns around, you don't want to have invested in something that is expensive to purchase and maintain and might lock them down when it is not needed.
Moving from a workground to AD, for example, is trivial. Going back, is not so trivial and the AD costs are already sunk.
-
@scottalanmiller said in SMB resources on the move:
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller said in SMB resources on the move:
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller said in SMB resources on the move:
Funny, this conversation is exactly the counter to the 9-5 thread. These solutions that you want to replace are literally, in nearly every case, only existing in situations where someone brings in a VAR masquerading as a consultant, who sells things to make the vendor happy even though they are terrible solutions for the customer and are so obviously so that it's pathetic that the customer doesn't know enough IT to bust them.
Lol obviously I wouldn't want to sell myself as a VAR. I'm just trying to find ways to save SMBs money while still making the environment highly manageable.
I understand, my point was that in the other thread it was mentioned that it was thought that we were exaggerating that people actually pretend to be consultants while really being a VAR, that the VAR side really influences them to fleece customers, etc. Yet this whole thread is you looking for solutions to exactly that problem... all the customers you know are getting fleeced in this way.
Maybe it's just early but the first half of your post suggests I'm just pretending and really I'm trying to be a VAR. But then the second half suggests I'm trying to help them, because they are getting fleeced.
Not what I meant. My point was that customers with fewer than twenty users, with onsite AD and Exchange (especially Exchange) are normally the result of VARs fleecing them. You are looking for a solution because you are finding so many VARs doing this to people.
Thanks for the clarity. That makes me feel better. I felt like a piece of sh*t for a minute for even asking the question that I really didn't know much about.
-
@scottalanmiller said in SMB resources on the move:
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
"I have a business of 10-15 people. They haven't added any new people in 5 years so scaling is slow."
But if the growth stops or turns around, you don't want to have invested in something that is expensive to purchase and maintain and might lock them down when it is not needed.
Good point. I've saw too many admins buy something "that would be good for company growth over the next 5 years". I really don't agree with that mentality because it's not realistic to plan for something that far in the future. Like a company buying a $20k SAN for 50 users because they expect to have 1500 users over the next 3 years.
-
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
"I have a business of 10-15 people. What does their network look like as far as on-premises and/or cloud equipment,services,etc?"
Today, a well designed system for the "average use cases" at this scale, assuming a lot of things including good WAN connectivity and no special case applications that break everything...
- No central logins and/or Azure AD if it is already paid for.
- Office 365 or Google Apps or similar for most services.
- SaaS applications across the board
And that's it. No servers at all, no storage at all except what is part of the existing productivity packages and all apps are off premises. No servers, no colocation, no IaaS, no systems to maintain.
Tons of exceptions to this, but this is the majority use case when done well. It's the median average of new, proper solutions. Old companies with cruft not withstanding.
-
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller said in SMB resources on the move:
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
"I have a business of 10-15 people. They haven't added any new people in 5 years so scaling is slow."
But if the growth stops or turns around, you don't want to have invested in something that is expensive to purchase and maintain and might lock them down when it is not needed.
Good point. I've saw too many admins buy something "that would be good for company growth over the next 5 years". I really don't agree with that mentality because it's not realistic to plan for something that far in the future. Like a company buying a $20k SAN for 50 users because they expect to have 1500 users over the next 3 years.
And one of the dirty secrets of business is that there is no such thing as a prediction... there is just "lying through your teeth to scam investors". Companies can barely predict two weeks out, not a year. Never five years. If they could, they'd be worth anything with that knowledge. Even if the CEO tells you they will grow, don't believe him, that's crazy. He's just guessing and/or bluffing. And even if you did know exactly how the business would grow, you don't know how technology will change. So even perfect five year planning from your business doesn't give you enough info to know how to approach IT today for five years out.
-
@DustinB3403 said in SMB resources on the move:
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
I was driving home from work last night, thinking about how to better serve the SMB market. More on the side of micro businesses under 20 people. A few questions I was processing and expanding on:
-
Do they really need servers? You could buy a simple NAS, or use a cloud storage provider like OneDrive for Business, Dropbox for Business, etc.
-
Do they need a domain? If so, they could use something like Azure for AD.
-
Do they need central email? If they don't need central email like Exchange, but want their email to appear like a business email, with their domain. Whoever is hosting their domain, usually provides email services at an extra cost.
What are your thoughts on some of those displacements? Thinking about this from, say, an MSP perspective. Not in-house IT. I'm thinking of how to better serve those micro businesses so as not to remain in the stagnant mindset of "you will have on-premises servers for file serves, AD, and Exchange."
I would use Zentyal for all of the above, you can purchase a server for really cheap. A 20 person office is right there on the cusp of "needing" AD.
You get everything baked into one open source package that a business would need, for free (unless you wanted the supported version).
And a server for Micro-Businesses like this would be super cheap.
I haven't used Zentyal before (though I think eBox was easier to pronounce... lol. Still not sure how to pronounce Zentyal... zent-yall?) but that looks really cool. Is it a replacement for Microsoft Small Business Server then? I haven't used SBS since 2011 and thought it was being deprecated at the time. Or did Microsoft replace SBS with Server Essentials? :S
-
-
Zentyall can do a lot of things, AD included.... For an SMB that expressed a firm desire for centralized authentication, I'd go with some form of Linux based AD, such as Zentyal or a DIY solution like Samba 4...
However, if they're already paying for O365 and they get the AzureAD with it... why not use it instead?
-
@scottalanmiller said in SMB resources on the move:
't a business class company. You can't use GoDaddy services for any business function except registration services, which don'
Rackspace is the same way for O365.
-
@DustinB3403 said in SMB resources on the move:
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
I was driving home from work last night, thinking about how to better serve the SMB market. More on the side of micro businesses under 20 people. A few questions I was processing and expanding on:
-
Do they really need servers? You could buy a simple NAS, or use a cloud storage provider like OneDrive for Business, Dropbox for Business, etc.
-
Do they need a domain? If so, they could use something like Azure for AD.
-
Do they need central email? If they don't need central email like Exchange, but want their email to appear like a business email, with their domain. Whoever is hosting their domain, usually provides email services at an extra cost.
What are your thoughts on some of those displacements? Thinking about this from, say, an MSP perspective. Not in-house IT. I'm thinking of how to better serve those micro businesses so as not to remain in the stagnant mindset of "you will have on-premises servers for file serves, AD, and Exchange."
I would use Zentyal for all of the above, you can purchase a server for really cheap. A 20 person office is right there on the cusp of "needing" AD.
You get everything baked into one open source package that a business would need, for free (unless you wanted the supported version).
And a server for Micro-Businesses like this would be super cheap.
Huh - I'd almost never go this way. Unless there is some legal or technical reason that they need onsite stuff (like they have horrible internet options) Why have onsite anything?
-
-
@Dashrender said in SMB resources on the move:
@DustinB3403 said in SMB resources on the move:
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
I was driving home from work last night, thinking about how to better serve the SMB market. More on the side of micro businesses under 20 people. A few questions I was processing and expanding on:
-
Do they really need servers? You could buy a simple NAS, or use a cloud storage provider like OneDrive for Business, Dropbox for Business, etc.
-
Do they need a domain? If so, they could use something like Azure for AD.
-
Do they need central email? If they don't need central email like Exchange, but want their email to appear like a business email, with their domain. Whoever is hosting their domain, usually provides email services at an extra cost.
What are your thoughts on some of those displacements? Thinking about this from, say, an MSP perspective. Not in-house IT. I'm thinking of how to better serve those micro businesses so as not to remain in the stagnant mindset of "you will have on-premises servers for file serves, AD, and Exchange."
I would use Zentyal for all of the above, you can purchase a server for really cheap. A 20 person office is right there on the cusp of "needing" AD.
You get everything baked into one open source package that a business would need, for free (unless you wanted the supported version).
And a server for Micro-Businesses like this would be super cheap.
Huh - I'd almost never go this way. Unless there is some legal or technical reason that they need onsite stuff (like they have horrible internet options) Why have onsite anything?
Are you using Azure AD then?
-
-
@Dashrender said in SMB resources on the move:
I'll admit that I find it pretty hard to get away from the idea of centralized logon, no matter how small the company it. I
This is definitely a me thing. Scott's right that most can probably get away from it and use the authentication mechanisms of whatever services they use to secure that data.
I suppose you can use MDM at the PC level if you want to ensure things like software deployments, AV, updates, etc to manage that, instead of a domain (and I'm referring to the built in features that come along with Windows AD, not AD itself - for example GPOs).
@scottalanmiller would you have local logons? or skip even those? How do you handle situations where users don't do as they are told and save things to the cloud.. and install save to the desktop and they are sick and now you need access? Am I worried over nothing?
-
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
@Dashrender said in SMB resources on the move:
@DustinB3403 said in SMB resources on the move:
@BBigford said in SMB resources on the move:
I was driving home from work last night, thinking about how to better serve the SMB market. More on the side of micro businesses under 20 people. A few questions I was processing and expanding on:
-
Do they really need servers? You could buy a simple NAS, or use a cloud storage provider like OneDrive for Business, Dropbox for Business, etc.
-
Do they need a domain? If so, they could use something like Azure for AD.
-
Do they need central email? If they don't need central email like Exchange, but want their email to appear like a business email, with their domain. Whoever is hosting their domain, usually provides email services at an extra cost.
What are your thoughts on some of those displacements? Thinking about this from, say, an MSP perspective. Not in-house IT. I'm thinking of how to better serve those micro businesses so as not to remain in the stagnant mindset of "you will have on-premises servers for file serves, AD, and Exchange."
I would use Zentyal for all of the above, you can purchase a server for really cheap. A 20 person office is right there on the cusp of "needing" AD.
You get everything baked into one open source package that a business would need, for free (unless you wanted the supported version).
And a server for Micro-Businesses like this would be super cheap.
Huh - I'd almost never go this way. Unless there is some legal or technical reason that they need onsite stuff (like they have horrible internet options) Why have onsite anything?
Are you using Azure AD then?
You have a choice - Like @scottalanmiller said, you can skip the centralized logon altogether. or use something like Azure AD. See my previous post
We over lapped
-
-
@Dashrender said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller would you have local logons? or skip even those? How do you handle situations where users don't do as they are told and save things to the cloud.. and install save to the desktop and they are sick and now you need access? Am I worried over nothing?
Management and policy issue. This isn't a problem for IT to solve.
-
@coliver said in SMB resources on the move:
@Dashrender said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller would you have local logons? or skip even those? How do you handle situations where users don't do as they are told and save things to the cloud.. and install save to the desktop and they are sick and now you need access? Am I worried over nothing?
Management and policy issue. This isn't a problem for IT to solve.
LOL touche.. but still, you're the owner - what do you pick and why?
-
@Dashrender said in SMB resources on the move:
@coliver said in SMB resources on the move:
@Dashrender said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller would you have local logons? or skip even those? How do you handle situations where users don't do as they are told and save things to the cloud.. and install save to the desktop and they are sick and now you need access? Am I worried over nothing?
Management and policy issue. This isn't a problem for IT to solve.
LOL touche.. but still, you're the owner - what do you pick and why?
If people aren't doing their job why do you have those people?
It depends on the company, if I were doing a green field with a decent internet connection I would do SaaS and hosted all the way.
-
@coliver said in SMB resources on the move:
@Dashrender said in SMB resources on the move:
@coliver said in SMB resources on the move:
@Dashrender said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller would you have local logons? or skip even those? How do you handle situations where users don't do as they are told and save things to the cloud.. and install save to the desktop and they are sick and now you need access? Am I worried over nothing?
Management and policy issue. This isn't a problem for IT to solve.
LOL touche.. but still, you're the owner - what do you pick and why?
If people aren't doing their job why do you have those people?
It depends on the company, if I were doing a green field with a decent internet connection I would do SaaS and hosted all the way.
Where did people not doing their job come from? oh you mean the not saving the files in the correct place - that's a joke right? Assuming you're supposed to save all of your files on a network share, are you telling me that NEVER save one to the desktop? I know I do. and then I get set and forgot to move it.... it's not often, but it does happen.
I'm not going to can someone over that. -
@Dashrender said in SMB resources on the move:
@coliver said in SMB resources on the move:
@Dashrender said in SMB resources on the move:
@coliver said in SMB resources on the move:
@Dashrender said in SMB resources on the move:
@scottalanmiller would you have local logons? or skip even those? How do you handle situations where users don't do as they are told and save things to the cloud.. and install save to the desktop and they are sick and now you need access? Am I worried over nothing?
Management and policy issue. This isn't a problem for IT to solve.
LOL touche.. but still, you're the owner - what do you pick and why?
If people aren't doing their job why do you have those people?
It depends on the company, if I were doing a green field with a decent internet connection I would do SaaS and hosted all the way.
Where did people not doing their job come from? oh you mean the not saving the files in the correct place - that's a joke right? Assuming you're supposed to save all of your files on a network share, are you telling me that NEVER save one to the desktop? I know I do. and then I get set and forgot to move it.... it's not often, but it does happen.
I'm not going to can someone over that.So we're back to this being a management and policy issue. If it's part of your job to save things in a specific location and you don't do that they you aren't doing your job. Am I being pedantic, yes of course I am, but I'm just trying to illustrate why this isn't an IT issue.
That being said most cloud platforms have an easy way to sync to the local desktop making this kind of moot... hell I have a script that mounts my ODfB account to a local drive over WebDAV. It can also do Sharepoint sites.
