O365 Fully Installed vs. Online Versions
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@wirestyle22 said:
Does this make sense?
I see what you are saying - but I don't see how you are getting rid of single points of failure, at least not entirely - but then you haven't laid out the entire plan.
You mentioned a Terminal Server - are you planning on moving that?
I think the most cost effective move for you might to be go colo. Move all of your servers into a real DC. They will cover power and internet connectivity - things that I assume are your biggest fears. then everything else can stay exactly as it is, or at least nearly so - the people in your location would need to start acting like those 33 other locations and now be TSing into the colo
This is only one of many options.
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Something to keep in mind here - you will NOT be saying any money with most if not all of these options - at least not money that management will really understand (at least those I've dealt with).
For example, you need to take into account heating/cooling/power/UPSs/resilient internet connections/etc etc etc... these costs all add up. There are sorta free to you today with your ownsite things - management doesn't see a line item for heating/cooling DC = $x/month they just know the whole building HVAC costs.
You're also gaining major stability points moving to a DC or hosted over what you have today. But again, this is something that isn't tangible to them - why? Because SMB hardware is actually pretty damned reliable today. That and you do your job of maintaining things, so they (management) and users rarely see an issue that is from the IT closet. So while your uptime might go from 99.9 to 99.99 or even 99.999 they don't see it or probably care.
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@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
Does this make sense?
I see what you are saying - but I don't see how you are getting rid of single points of failure, at least not entirely - but then you haven't laid out the entire plan.
You mentioned a Terminal Server - are you planning on moving that?
I think the most cost effective move for you might to be go colo. Move all of your servers into a real DC. They will cover power and internet connectivity - things that I assume are your biggest fears. then everything else can stay exactly as it is, or at least nearly so - the people in your location would need to start acting like those 33 other locations and now be TSing into the colo
This is only one of many options.
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes but it's a one step at a time kind of thing for me right now.
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@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
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Oh by the way, love the conversation this morning!
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@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
ZeroTier has already been approved. That's another project I'm working on
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@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
Or look into Azure AD. You can natively authenticate to it via Windows 10 now. This could help alleviate some costs and makes Office365 more attractive.
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@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
Or look into Azure AD. You can natively authenticate to it via Windows 10 now. This could help alleviate some costs and makes Office365 more attractive.
O360 will never be attractive to my directors with those price points, even at non-profit discounts. They don't think in terms of saved money supplementing other purchases.
Have you had a good experience with Azure? I've heard nothing but bad things.
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@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
Or look into Azure AD. You can natively authenticate to it via Windows 10 now. This could help alleviate some costs and makes Office365 more attractive.
O360 will never be attractive to my directors with those price points, even at non-profit discounts. They don't think in terms of saved money supplementing other purchases.
You're losing me - I thought it was free for most of your users? What type of MS Office licenses do you have now? Is there any reason you can't keep using what you have today? and move email to O365?
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@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
Or look into Azure AD. You can natively authenticate to it via Windows 10 now. This could help alleviate some costs and makes Office365 more attractive.
O360 will never be attractive to my directors with those price points, even at non-profit discounts. They don't think in terms of saved money supplementing other purchases.
You're losing me - I thought it was free for most of your users? What type of MS Office licenses do you have now? Is there any reason you can't keep using what you have today? and move email to O365?
My thought process: If I can't use O365 to access local files then it's useless for me regardless of the savings especially considering the limitations.
I suppose moving to O365 just for e-mail would alleviate the $8 (I think) fee that we pay for it from Techsoup. Is that what you mean?
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@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
Or look into Azure AD. You can natively authenticate to it via Windows 10 now. This could help alleviate some costs and makes Office365 more attractive.
O360 will never be attractive to my directors with those price points, even at non-profit discounts. They don't think in terms of saved money supplementing other purchases.
Have you had a good experience with Azure? I've heard nothing but bad things.
Azure AD and Office 365 work pretty flawlessly from what I can tell. Azure the cloud vendor has some issues though.
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@coliver said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
Or look into Azure AD. You can natively authenticate to it via Windows 10 now. This could help alleviate some costs and makes Office365 more attractive.
O360 will never be attractive to my directors with those price points, even at non-profit discounts. They don't think in terms of saved money supplementing other purchases.
Have you had a good experience with Azure? I've heard nothing but bad things.
Azure AD and Office 365 work pretty flawlessly from what I can tell. Azure the cloud vendor has some issues though.
Maybe that is what I'm thinking of. Does Azure AD allow me to access local files using O365 though?
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@wirestyle22 said:
@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
Or look into Azure AD. You can natively authenticate to it via Windows 10 now. This could help alleviate some costs and makes Office365 more attractive.
O360 will never be attractive to my directors with those price points, even at non-profit discounts. They don't think in terms of saved money supplementing other purchases.
You're losing me - I thought it was free for most of your users? What type of MS Office licenses do you have now? Is there any reason you can't keep using what you have today? and move email to O365?
My thought process: If I can't use O365 to access local files then it's useless for me regardless of the savings especially considering the limitations.
I suppose moving to O365 just for e-mail would alleviate the $8 (I think) fee that we pay for it from Techsoup. Is that what you mean?
Exchange Online is free, IIRC, for non-profits. So you could move email to the O365 without anything invested but time.
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@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
Or look into Azure AD. You can natively authenticate to it via Windows 10 now. This could help alleviate some costs and makes Office365 more attractive.
O360 will never be attractive to my directors with those price points, even at non-profit discounts. They don't think in terms of saved money supplementing other purchases.
Have you had a good experience with Azure? I've heard nothing but bad things.
Azure AD and Office 365 work pretty flawlessly from what I can tell. Azure the cloud vendor has some issues though.
Maybe that is what I'm thinking of. Does Azure AD allow me to access local files using O365 though?
Azure AD is an AD replacement. It has nothing to do with your file shares.
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@coliver said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
Or look into Azure AD. You can natively authenticate to it via Windows 10 now. This could help alleviate some costs and makes Office365 more attractive.
O360 will never be attractive to my directors with those price points, even at non-profit discounts. They don't think in terms of saved money supplementing other purchases.
Have you had a good experience with Azure? I've heard nothing but bad things.
Azure AD and Office 365 work pretty flawlessly from what I can tell. Azure the cloud vendor has some issues though.
Maybe that is what I'm thinking of. Does Azure AD allow me to access local files using O365 though?
Azure AD is an AD replacement. It has nothing to do with your file shares.
Right so my problem is still a problem if we move to Azure. I still wouldn't use O365 (the free version) and the paid version is still too expensive to justify for my company (from managements perspective) regardless of money saved.
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@wirestyle22 said:
I suppose moving to O365 just for e-mail would alleviate the $8 (I think) fee that we pay for it from Techsoup. Is that what you mean?
From your own link, yes - that is what I mean.
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@wirestyle22 said:
My thought process: If I can't use O365 to access local files then it's useless for me regardless of the savings especially considering the limitations.
Why? You are looking to move all of the files to the cloud anyway using ownCloud. Sure, local MS Office could open a file you receive in email and you're using some other email system. But if you are using O365, those MS Office attachements would open right in the browser window right along side the email.
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@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
Or look into Azure AD. You can natively authenticate to it via Windows 10 now. This could help alleviate some costs and makes Office365 more attractive.
O360 will never be attractive to my directors with those price points, even at non-profit discounts. They don't think in terms of saved money supplementing other purchases.
Have you had a good experience with Azure? I've heard nothing but bad things.
Azure AD and Office 365 work pretty flawlessly from what I can tell. Azure the cloud vendor has some issues though.
Maybe that is what I'm thinking of. Does Azure AD allow me to access local files using O365 though?
No, just like AD locally has nothing to do with files locally being accessed on a desktop - they are not related.
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@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
Or look into Azure AD. You can natively authenticate to it via Windows 10 now. This could help alleviate some costs and makes Office365 more attractive.
O360 will never be attractive to my directors with those price points, even at non-profit discounts. They don't think in terms of saved money supplementing other purchases.
Have you had a good experience with Azure? I've heard nothing but bad things.
Azure AD and Office 365 work pretty flawlessly from what I can tell. Azure the cloud vendor has some issues though.
Maybe that is what I'm thinking of. Does Azure AD allow me to access local files using O365 though?
Azure AD is an AD replacement. It has nothing to do with your file shares.
Right so my problem is still a problem if we move to Azure. I still wouldn't use O365 (the free version) and the paid version is still too expensive to justify for my company (from managements perspective) regardless of money saved.
Please explain the alternative.
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@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
@wirestyle22 said:
With the OwnCloud server hosted by Vultr my users would at least have access to the file server, which for what we do is essentially 99% of their job. Everything else is web based now. I think just my domain controller would be a great start as far as a datacenter goes.
Sure, so it sounds like LANless design would be good for you. ownCloud for files (non synced unless require offline access) locally install MS Office - keep current version.
Do you need AD? maybe, maybe not. If yes, can you upgrade everyone to Windows 10, and use Azure AD? Do you need things like GPO? If yes, well, you're going to have spend some money or convert to Linux AD. On the money side, you'll have to maintain a Windows server with some type of connection, site to site VPNs, or ZeroTier, etc, or purchase a MDM solution that handles PCs as well as mobile devices.
Or look into Azure AD. You can natively authenticate to it via Windows 10 now. This could help alleviate some costs and makes Office365 more attractive.
O360 will never be attractive to my directors with those price points, even at non-profit discounts. They don't think in terms of saved money supplementing other purchases.
Have you had a good experience with Azure? I've heard nothing but bad things.
Azure AD and Office 365 work pretty flawlessly from what I can tell. Azure the cloud vendor has some issues though.
Maybe that is what I'm thinking of. Does Azure AD allow me to access local files using O365 though?
No, just like AD locally has nothing to do with files locally being accessed on a desktop - they are not related.
That was my point
