I'm paying 20,000 baht per mo for our IT services. Will Google drive work instead?

[Jaggg88]

Google Apps for Business

DropBox

... and someone to keep it all backed up (on or offline) when it all goes fubar

How FAST do need access to the materials. Hang a secure Linux Server on your Internet connection.

hahahaha a secure Linux server - now I've heard it all. The same ones Sony use.

[MilesofSmiles]

Nepal4me, I sent you a detailed PM with accurate costings answering many of the questions you've asked here.

Much of it the same as other IT professionals with real experience are saying....

Call one them, or call the number I sent via PM.

• Ask your current provider to document and explain exactly what they are currently providing you, and exactly what it does.
• why did this not occur to you at the very beginning???????

There is some awful second-hand advice being given out on this thread.

I pity the foo who following second hand advice from amateurs - or worse yet - untested assumption.

>> The Cloud is useful for a backup, but in Thailand I don't feel that the internet is strong enough to allow you to use 100% cloud services,

More bad advice. Your feelings really don't matter.
An appropriate business-grade connection will be fine, more than fine.

Once a week you either make a backup with a USB Harddisk. Or daily with a NAS.

Costs minimal. If you have twice in a year a problem, you'll find someone who fix it.

140.000 Baht per year, you easily find someone for 5000 Baht who comes and fix any problem you may have.

For 140.000 (140 thousand?) baht a year, this sucks.

Would not survive a fire or a flood, robbery, power spikes or hardware failure.
Not automatic. Not automatic. 1 point of failure (office burns down with NAS, all staff PC"s and the usb backup on-site... and you're f*cked)

It seems we could have something as simple as the free version of Google Drive and that would suffice (as long as 5 people can access it). The problem is I don't know what would happen if something goes wrong.

> What happens if something goes wrong ?

On the free package ?

You lose all your data and you're f*cked. And there'll be literally nothing you can do.

I sent you a PM outlining the paid package, for google apps, with backups.

Software cost = $560 a year.

> Are there IT companies out there that offer this kind of on-site support if required and don't charge an arm and a leg?

> I'm looking to save as much money as possible without jeopardizing our operations.

The free version of google drive won't do what you want.

Danbit

Raid 5 will be enough. Install Team Viewer and find a PC firm to help you one time, to set it up. Raid 5 needs 3 hard disk and it cost you one disk in capacity

Dear god no.

Raid5 sounds good on paper, but is actually quite vulnerable to disk corruption resulting in large data loss.

----------------------------------------------------------

For anyone reading this thread wondering how much a basic google apps solution, with very good backup costs, here it is the reality of it.

• The 4 solutions to look at are (in my opinion, having tested and used them)
  • Google Apps
  • Box.net
  • MS office online
  • AWS
• Setting it up right, and choosing the right solution is the difficult part, and this is what you pay a professional to do. Pay peanuts, get monkeys.

• Google Apps is $5 / user / month.
• Realtime backup (on GA) with granular recovery and search will cost $40/user/year.
• http://spanning.com/products/pricing/

Edited January 13, 2015 by MilesofSmiles

[maidee]

20k per month for it services for minimal service

damn, i knew i had to charge my customers more, back in the old days and the old country

[phazey]

Well there seems to be a lot of information here, if it's useful or not i'll leave that up to the OP - But my further thoughts.

If it's backup or business continuity - consider "crash plan" - google it (SORRY! I MEANT EVIL EMPIRE IT!!)

Gmail can be accessed via IMAP, so Gmail4business -> Outlook local client may be doable, and ease of use for local staff may be better - if that's how they've been prior educated...

A RAID5 NAS may be nice, and sound wonderful in over the bar chats, but seriously, having a SPOF at your office is a bad idea, most companies (including google, dropbox, box etc) use RAID n+1, or indeed RAID++ (forget what it;s called, part of OpenStack, but it's basically uncrashable unless there's a very serious asteroid incident)...

You may be concerned about having your private data in the cloud, so consider encrypting it first - I can offer advice on this, as can many of my peers on this forum.

There's an *awful* lot you can do for free - but please if you're running a money making business, have a small IT budget - 20k for the machinery you explained in your OP must be a hell of an SLA.

I think above all, you will be depending on your stable, reliable, dependable Internet connection.........