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Web based file storage?


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Does anyone know of any web-based file storage systems that they could recommend? We're mostly looking for something that users could log into (preferably with their AD credentials), and then they'll have some space where they could upload/download their files. We mostly want this so that our users have a way to backup their important files, as well as have access to them from anywhere.

I figured something like this would be simple and common, but after half an hour of searching for various keywords on Google, I haven't had much luck finding anything.

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"We mostly want this so that our users have a way to backup their important files, as well as have access to them from anywhere."

Do you mean outside your network as well? Without their laptops for example?

Every single network I have ever seen in the work place users had personal shares. These would be available anywhere they went with those machines in the network, or even if logged into different machines.

When away from the work network, once they connected via vpn again available from anywhere on the planet.

Not sure why you feel you need to wrap a web ui around it?? Make it harder to work with the files to be honest. Isn't it much easier to just have a mapped drive say P:\ for their personal drive? That is on the network, and then backed up using the company backup solution.

Files should be available to the user where ever they can connect said work laptop to a network and vpn to the work network. But no not be available to them while they are at the internet cafe without their laptop, etc. And why should it be?

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If we were a business, it would indeed be as simple as using personal shares and a VPN... However, we're actually a public school district, and this really complicates matters. A few years ago, everything worked fine - the only devices on our network were district owned Windows computers that were on the domain. Everyone had a private network share, that worked relatively well (a few glitches here and there, but nothing major), everyone was happy.

Of course, that was then, not now. Our district's school board and administrators have been quite clear - we have to allow schools to buy Macs and iPads, we have to allow students and staff to bring their own personal devices, etc. So now we have a lot of district owned devices on our domain, a lot of district owned devices that are not on our domain, and a lot of devices that the district doesn't even own, all connecting to and using our network.

Yet at the same time, we're still expected to provide a place for them to store files, and using a web based system is the best method we could think of. I do like personal network shares - they're simple, effective, very user friendly. However, we need to provide a solution that is accessible to non-domain devices, and it also has to be accessible outside the network. VPN isn't really a possibility, due to a few reasons (complexity for users, licensing costs, etc). Is there a way to implement personal shares for domain computers, but allow access to the shares in a non-vpn based method for non-domain computers?

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