What server to choose?

[zamuel]

Hi
I am in a small organisation (50 people) that are looking for a way to share files (Word/pdf documents) on a server that we could access to our iPhones and Androids. We would like to be able to download the files to our phones, in a easy and user friendly way, so we don't need to have internet access all the time (living in a place where 3G is limited). The documents on the server is just for viewing, when downloaded they should be able to be edited.
We need to give different levels of user permissions to different folders.

We also looking for a way to word search these documents in one search on our phones. But maybe this is best to do in a third part app. Any suggestions?

What is the best solutions?
Have been looking at Windows Home Server 2011. But I do not know much about it.
File servers seems to be expensive. Or?
Cloud servers seems to be limited.

Thank you!

 

[Lexluethar]

That's kind of a two part question. In order to share files in a network setting, like an office you need a file server. Lots of different ways to accomplish this, for a company your size i would suggest Server 2012 or Home Server. Home Server 2011 only supports 75 user's, so it isn't scalable. If you guys expanded you'd have to drop money on a new infrastructure. This is why i would suggest using server 2012, set it up as a domain controller, have all PC's log into the domain and setup shared and ntfs permissions to accomplish the security you desire.

The second part of that question is accessing files remotely from a mobile device. Windows won't do this out of the box, you will need something like Citrix or another add on that has an app that can be loaded onto your phone. Be VERY VERY CAUTIONS with this, realize that application will have access to your core server, so don't just go with any vendor. This is why i suggested Citrix. We have a Citrix receiver that allows us to access our desktops from our phone's and do what we please.

One other option would be to use some type of document management system that would run on the server, but would come with an app that would support and integrate into your system.

I realize you are asking a simple question - but there is no simple answer. Cost, security and scalability have to be considered before moving to a solution.

 

[zamuel]

That's kind of a two part question. In order to share files in a network setting, like an office you need a file server. Lots of different ways to accomplish this, for a company your size i would suggest Server 2012 or Home Server. Home Server 2011 only supports 75 user's, so it isn't scalable. If you guys expanded you'd have to drop money on a new infrastructure. This is why i would suggest using server 2012, set it up as a domain controller, have all PC's log into the domain and setup shared and ntfs permissions to accomplish the security you desire.

The second part of that question is accessing files remotely from a mobile device. Windows won't do this out of the box, you will need something like Citrix or another add on that has an app that can be loaded onto your phone. Be VERY VERY CAUTIONS with this, realize that application will have access to your core server, so don't just go with any vendor. This is why i suggested Citrix. We have a Citrix receiver that allows us to access our desktops from our phone's and do what we please.

One other option would be to use some type of document management system that would run on the server, but would come with an app that would support and integrate into your system.

I realize you are asking a simple question - but there is no simple answer. Cost, security and scalability have to be considered before moving to a solution.

Thanks for your answer!
I know there is no easy answer to this. I have asked many people and noone have been able to give everything we want. I think we have to split it into four questions.
-Server kind
-Server software
-Phone, file manager software
-Phone, Document editor.

I got a tip from a friend that said Sugar Sync and the Iphone app Documents works good. But thats just for iPhone. Documents can word search many documents at the time. That our main problem.

But thanks I will research your answer.
I think file server is