File server alternatives? Dropbox/Box/ShareFile/Others

Brad Schneider Technology Investor at Adaptive Management

September 16th, 2013

Does anyone have a recommendation on the best replacement for a Windows File Server in the cloud? I'm starting a small company where employees will need a central file store in order to share files. I need users to be able to access shared files from anywhere. I don't want to actually buy a server and have any server hardware in the office.

I also need to be able to create different groups and be sure that a user in one group can't access files belonging to another group. This type of functionality is simple with a Windows file server and active directory but seems far more complex when using DropBox for Teams. Security is pretty important to me so I'm curious what other people have had success with (DropBox, Box, ShareFile or others)

Ben Unsworth Co-founder/President, Globacore Interactive Technologies

September 16th, 2013

Hi -- I am out of the office today in transit. Please contact mandi.matson@globacore.com with anything urgent. Thanks, Ben

Tony Clemendor Founder/CEO - GiftWow, Growth & Operations Guy, Startup Advisor

September 16th, 2013

Brad, A friend of mine, Aaron Ganek, is the founder of Cloudtenna, a company that may or may not be an option for you. He's a straight shooter and knows a lot about what is available and would be happy to talk to you about what current products would best help you. His email is aaron@cloudtenna.com Tony

Jonatan Ary Experienced Hands-On Systems Architect

September 16th, 2013

You can use Dropbox for teams, creating a folder with the team members with access to the folder.

Another option is to move to confluence by atlassian, you can create the documents (as wiki) and then export them as word and/or PDF.

Anonymous

September 16th, 2013

Have you explored Windows Azure? cloud based storage, but linked into your on-premise Active Directory for user/role/permissions management. Appears to be the best of both worlds, if I read the OP's message right...

Anthony Dobaj

September 16th, 2013

Google docs has worked well for me - 50 bucks per user per year. I don't care for Dropbox.

Josh Orum CMO, Operating Partner at Spotlight Equity

September 16th, 2013

I've looked at a number of solutions in this space for my company as well. None were EXACTLY what I wanted, but a few came close. A lot of them are coming out of the file sharing space - consumers sharing individual files with one another - which doesn't translate well to corporate file servers.

I recommend checking out Box.net - it has robust roles-based permissions and may be exactly what you're looking for. I ended up not using it because it didn't support some of the file types our team uses.

An interesting alternative is Egnyte, which also offers good role-based permissions, and supports cheap local storage as well.

Jay Patel Senior Product Manager @ Atlassian

September 16th, 2013

I'm biased since I work for Box, but you should look into the Box Starter and Box Business plans. You can also probably get enough functionality with the free Personal plan as if you take time to organize folders the right way and only share links with the appropriate people. But the more advanced groups and administrative features are only available with the Business plan. In terms of security and scale as your business and needs grow, I genuinely believe Box is your best bet. Good luck finding the right service. Message me if you want more info. Thanks. Jay

Greg Hacobian Technical Product Manager

September 16th, 2013

Hi, I am the co-founder of www.digitalbucket.net and I think we can provide exactly what you are looking for. We are backed by Amazon Web Services and our pricing is nowhere close to other services.

I am planning to provide 50% discount for digitalbucket.net services to FounderDating members. Give digitalbucket.net a try and let me know if you have any questions.

I am also looking for Business partners to take this Business to the next level. Let me know if you are interested.

Thanks,

Greg

Aren Kaser Founder and CEO at Igor Institute

September 16th, 2013

We use Google Drive with FileMan installed from the Google Apps Marketplace.

Sati Hillyer Looking to Hire a Ruby Engineer to join OneMob - 2015 Gartner Cool Vendor for CRM Sales

September 16th, 2013

If you plan to implement a CRM, I'd recommend Chatter. You can create public and private groups to share docs with all or certain users. Plus it's got great mobile apps for iOS and Android devices. And when you're ready to implement a CRM to run your business, it will scale for that.

http://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/

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