Recently I bought a Dell R710 Server and a storage array that can handle 15 HDD’s It connects with a fibre cable to the server and its sweet, picked it up for next to nothing too, I digress.
My aim is to provide a cloud based backup for my clients to this server and the storage.
What solution would you recommend that I use keeping in mind that I would need the clients to be able to connect to me securely, ease of use both from my side (administration) and for the client side (simple and easy).
I use Nextcloud for my home server. There is also OwnCloud. I don’t know the difference, I basically picked one out of a hat and went with it. I read enough to know that they used to be owncloud and nc forked off…i think. THAT SAID…surely someone will come on here and tell us why it isn’t secure and you shouldn’t use it (I suspect). for me, thats ok really. I have mostly media. For you though, I truly don’t know enough about security to say. I will say this though - I had some issues when I first installed it as a snap pack. Not issues with nextcloud actually but issues later with phpvirtualbox. I ended up doing a reformat and installing without the snap pack and both now play well together. I dont know if that was a matter of my own stupidity or if this was something regularly seen, all that I can say is that initially the snap pack install wasn’t noticeably easier or more quick to do and in the long run i spent a ton of time making corrections until the final reinstall so, i just suggest against it.
so owncloud DOES have an enterprise edition, though it may not meet your criteria i dont know, but it is an option.
As for security, again i dont know much but i have it running on 443 using a self-signed certificate so although someone certainly could open up my page and try to pen i am unsure what that would result in.
But given the enterprise support it may be worth looking into owncloud.
Youre totally correct though in that nextcloud is basically for personal use only.
From their site:
" Enterprise ready
Public cloud flexibility with private cloud security. IT can manage, control and audit file sharing activity to ensure security and compliance."
also, and this is something that I have not done so I may just be incorrect but, are you able to set up a vpn and just use a simple samba share instead on a server? again this is beyond me so in fact you would be helping me out with this question haha
I had considered looking into going that route as I thought thats what it was for but with that said security might not be good enough for you …
Leaving the technical implementation aside for a moment (my initial thought was Bacula fwiw), I have some thoughts from the business side.
I suspect if you have a serious look at your capital and operational costs so you can develop your pricing properly, you’ll find it challenging to compete with the big players in the cloud backup space while breaking even let alone making a normal profit at this. Even if you write the front end yourself, you might find you can’t do the storage and transit (bandwidth) part any cheaper than if you paid for something like S3 or B2 storage and rebilled it to the customer.
For comparison, have a look at your competition in the market and you may find some of them offer decent affiliate programs. Some of those might even be brand-able. You could make this a profitable line of business in much the way that an independent insurance broker isn’t actually insuring you, she’s merely using affiliate/commissions from third parties to make a living.
Just as an example, without doing anything but selling, you can take 10% for simple affiliate referrals to Backblaze, or they offer a comprehensive interface for you to resell it yourself. Look up “Backblaze Affiliate Guide” or “Backblaze Reseller Guide.” Acronis offers up to 20% commission with higher cuts of the profits available through their partner program. (See “Acronis Partner Programs.”) These are just the first two I looked at.
On top of the reseller/affiliate revenue, you can also offer (and bill) value-added services by offering installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting.
You might be able to offer the service in the way you’re thinking and still be profitable, but much like if you were trying to introduce a new cola to market, you’re going to need to find your marketing niche.
(I have no affiliation with any of the products/services mentioned.)
