ownCloud is a reasonable document management solution for SMB
Rating: 8 out of 10
IncentivizedUse Cases and Deployment Scope
We use it in the whole organization as the main document server. All employees including the management have the ownCloud desktop sync apps installed. Virtual users own different main folders (e.g. SALES, FINANCE etc.) and these are shared to groups read-only, read-write. Each user gets, therefore, a different set of folders according to the needs of each employee etc. Some people use it on a mobile, too.
It solves the key problem the company had when I joined it and no document server/cloud storage was present: each of the at-the-time few employees had its own set of files and folders and data were exchanged only via emails. Another important aspect is auto-backup of all company data to remote server. Easier collaboration on documents is also important.
It solves the key problem the company had when I joined it and no document server/cloud storage was present: each of the at-the-time few employees had its own set of files and folders and data were exchanged only via emails. Another important aspect is auto-backup of all company data to remote server. Easier collaboration on documents is also important.
Pros
- Runs fine on a inexpensive Linux VPS with a few CPU cores and little RAM and is able to serve well for dozens of users. The scalability at almost no extra cost is perfect.
- Sync clients are available for all major platforms: MS Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and mobile apps on Android and iOS are available too and work very well. We use all these platforms and are able to exchange documents transparently.
- Initial setting up the environment for users - such as creating a few user groups, virtual users owning particular folders and assigning users to these groups, is quite easy and quick. Auto-sync of data to local devices on all platforms is also perfect, users don't have to manually select anything, default is to sync (or admin can set on the desktop clients how big folders are auto-synced).
Cons
- Inability to easily collaboratively edit the same document by several people. Some advances have been made with Collabora (Libreoffice online) but it is still very sub-par compared to Office365 and desktop/online Office editing Sharepoint or OneDrive documents.
- Apps for Calendar and Contacts are not part of the basic core, and although now quite supported they cannot still be easily deployed in common email clients such as Outlook or Thunderbird, separate CalDAV and CardDAV plugins need to be installed. Embedding an email solution and plugins for major email clients so they can work just by entering username and password would be good.
- Risk of moving important folders/files to another location just by random drag-and-drop on Windows. Sometimes this breaks public links that cannot be restored anymore. Reverting such mistake by any of the users is impossible automatically.
- When some user deletes some data in a shared folder it is put into recycle bin of the owner of the folder. The user who deleted cannot himself/herself revert such action as he/she does not see the recycle bin (trash) of the owner. Also, there is no log in the recycle bin who deleted that file or folder.
Likelihood to Recommend
Perfect for a smaller company having no solid document server. Without any major costs you can go from 3 to 30 to 60 users with the same hardware or VPS and if self-managed, no payment per user per month. Less appropriate when users absolutely require collaborative editing of documents. Pick Office365 or G Suite (Google Documents for work) instead.