Alternative to a shared drive

Diddums · 7 May 2017 at 14:56

Need a bit of help here.

TL;DR:

Had shared drive at work, it made life very easy for us.
No longer have shared drive since migrating systems.
Keeping everyone in the loop is a PITA because some folks don't read emails.

Need new shared-drive-type-thingy:

Must have admin accounts, so only admins can edit or replace documents.
Must have user level accounts which can view everything on the drive and edit stuff for which they have been given permission. Not able to edit stuff for which they don't have permission.

Would be nice, not necessary:

Users able to submit documents for review and approval by admins.

Oh and it needs to be cheap / free as I'll be funding it myself.

Following my legality thread, I'm treading very lightly and will only do this if I have 100% definitive permission from the powers that be, but in the mean time, can anyone recommend a service like this?

I've a funny feeling this is going to be something extremely simple and I'm going to look an idiot but as I'm already an idiot it doesn't really matter.

Mynight · 7 May 2017 at 15:03

Does it have to be local/free or would Dropbox business suit your needs?

Diddums · 7 May 2017 at 15:04

Cloud based would be ideal. Can you do the permissions thing with Dropbox?

Oh and it needs to be cheap / free as I'll be funding it myself.

Feek · 7 May 2017 at 15:06

Stop Press

The shared drive is still there, it's just that you don't have access any more following shenanigans with your dodgy account sharing

Steeps · 7 May 2017 at 15:07

This sounds exactly like what MS Sharepoint does and why we tried to use it... but it doesn't.

Admin accounts? Yep
Different levels of access? Yep
User accounts so users can submit documents for review by admin? Yep
Read only? Well... no. What happens is if a user tries to edit a document, they can. It edits their version then puts it in the review section for admin to approve or disallow changes so you have to keep on top of it.

Version history is frustrating to navigate around, it used to constantly lose sync requiring a full refresh. We scrapped the project but it's probably a lot better now. Also it's £4/user/mo.

Diddums · 7 May 2017 at 15:08

Feek said:
Stop Press

The shared drive is still there, it's just that you don't have access any more following shenanigans with your dodgy account sharing

Damn, they're on to me

Diddums · 7 May 2017 at 15:09

Steeps said:
This sounds exactly like what MS Sharepoint does and why we tried to use it... but it doesn't.

Admin accounts? Yep
Different levels of access? Yep
User accounts so users can submit documents for review by admin? Yep
Read only? Well... no. What happens is if a user tries to edit a document, they can. It edits their version then puts it in the review section for admin to approve or disallow changes so you have to keep on top of it.

Version history is frustrating to navigate around, it used to constantly lose sync requiring a full refresh. We scrapped the project but it's probably a lot better now. Also it's £4/user/mo.

Cheers dude. Hopefully someone suggests an alternative then.

Mynight · 7 May 2017 at 15:10

Diddums said:
Cloud based would be ideal. Can you do the permissions thing with Dropbox?

Oh and it needs to be cheap / free as I'll be funding it myself.

Ahh afaik it's only with the business Dropbox which does cost.

Maybe something like owncloud but you've have to set that up yourself and the apps cost if you need mobile access.

Caged · 7 May 2017 at 15:12

Why are you going to be funding something to make up for a poor decision by your employer?

Diddums · 7 May 2017 at 15:14

Caged said:
Why are you going to be funding something to make up for a poor decision by your employer?

It's not that simple, there's a lot more at play here and I'm basically doing this to suck up and get brownie points. I haven't had a promotion for over a year so it's time to crack on. My company loves stuff like this. Innovation innit.

Diddums · 7 May 2017 at 15:17

Mynight said:
Ahh afaik it's only with the business Dropbox which does cost.

Maybe something like owncloud but you've have to set that up yourself and the apps cost if you need mobile access.

To be honest the best thing I can think of would be to host a site somewhere, with a URL everyone can use, and I manage it myself. The problem with this is that I'm not confident in my cyber security stuff and I't want the security to be tighter than a duck's arse hole. If there's a software package out there that I can use it'd help, but I can't think of anything.

Caged · 7 May 2017 at 15:17

There's taking the initiative and using in-work time to research something like this, funded by your employer which would count as innovation. If you work for a place that expects you to do the research on your own time and then pay for the service once it's been implemented then I think your efforts are best spent in looking for a better place to use your skills.

There is absolutely no way that hosting company confidential data on a service that you run is going to end well for you.

lude1962 · 7 May 2017 at 15:19

Oh Lordy, what are you thinking of, you want to hire some storage (in your name and paid for by you) to keep a copy of a company's data on, this could be twisted at some later date that you have stolen/misappropriated the data for your own personal gain.

Diddums · 7 May 2017 at 15:23

lude1962 said:
Oh Lordy, what are you thinking of, you want to hire some storage (in your name and paid for by you) to keep a copy of a company's data on, this could be twisted at some later date that you have stolen/misappropriated the data for your own personal gain.

All it would be is shift rotas and weekend works planners. I see your point though. Need to think this over a bit more.

Mynight · 7 May 2017 at 15:23

Diddums said:
To be honest the best thing I can think of would be to host a site somewhere, with a URL everyone can use, and I manage it myself. The problem with this is that I'm not confident in my cyber security stuff and I't want the security to be tighter than a duck's arse hole. If there's a software package out there that I can use it'd help, but I can't think of anything.

You could set up owncloud to run locally assuming you have the hardware for it. It looks like a good alternative to dropbox.\

Would be best to get your IT to look over it and make sure it complies with their rules.

Diddums · 7 May 2017 at 15:24

Caged said:
There's taking the initiative and using in-work time to research something like this, funded by your employer which would count as innovation. If you work for a place that expects you to do the research on your own time and then pay for the service once it's been implemented then I think your efforts are best spent in looking for a better place to use your skills.

There is absolutely no way that hosting company confidential data on a service that you run is going to end well for you.

Food for thought. Cheers.

Caged · 7 May 2017 at 15:31

Not to put a huge downer on things but your organisation will have requirements for retention of files, logging of access, data residency, security of live data and backups, service availability etc etc. which you've admitted you don't feel comfortable in dealing with. You could quite easily get into a situation where your direct management is happy but you are contradicting terms of employment or policies which make up those terms. Nobody is going to come out to bat for you if the poo hits the fan and you end up with a data breach that you can't prove didn't come from your project, and your line management will deny all knowledge of this even existing.

Hawk Tuah · 7 May 2017 at 15:33

We were in a similar situation when our small department merged with another company's equivalent small department - and we had no direct computer link. Dropbox business worked well for us as it meant the data was stored locally (so fast to access), and we could also access our data via Dropbox app on our iPads. At the time, there weren't quite as many alternative options as there are now.

However this was using 'off network' machines, with data that was intended for public release (PR materials), and I'd been a member of the companies IT team for over 10 years. This kind of solution would be absolutely inappropriate if these were company networked machines.

I guess it entirely depends on what type of company it is. If you have an IT department, and you're not in it - I would suggest running any potential solution via them. If there's a requirement for a shared network resource, and they're not providing it for you - then the problem should be escalated higher, not lower.

Diddums · 7 May 2017 at 15:36

Caged said:
Not to put a huge downer on things but your organisation will have requirements for retention of files, logging of access, data residency, security of live data and backups, service availability etc etc. which you've admitted you don't feel comfortable in dealing with. You could quite easily get into a situation where your direct management is happy but you are contradicting terms of employment or policies which make up those terms. Nobody is going to come out to bat for you if the poo hits the fan and you end up with a data breach that you can't prove didn't come from your project, and your line management will deny all knowledge of this even existing.

And this is the nail in the coffin. Makes perfect sense, I'll stay away. Thanks for the advice

The term "data breach" scares the hell out of me.

sigma · 7 May 2017 at 15:56

Diddums said:
It's not that simple, there's a lot more at play here and I'm basically doing this to suck up and get brownie points. I haven't had a promotion for over a year so it's time to crack on. My company loves stuff like this. Innovation innit.

Does that mean you've been promoted most years?