Had a good long chat to Mike today about where the potential lies for our cloud storage and sync platform.
One possible segment we discussed is that of small to medium enterprises.
I think that many companies want to have their data available from anywhere and many seem to wisht they didnt have to run their own servers. The obvious solution, of course, is a cloud based file server and associated services.
So whats out there now?
- Microsoft's Small Business Server has been the main stay for years, its Aurora edition has some cloud capabilities
- SME Storage
- Some open source options, eg this one
- Zentyal , apparently with 50,000 installations
Is it possible to compete with Microsoft's SBS in a cloud based environment?
I think so. Small business owners are very particular about what software they install on their own server, so the MS brand dominates decisions. But they seem to not care at all what powers any cloud based services they use - as long it works, who cares?!
The requirements
So what would be the minimum feature set? This from linux mag:
Part of the reason that Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) is attractive is that it includes many core features required by a company, out of the box. Important services like central authentication, email, file and print sharing and web. Perhaps most important of all is calendaring. It’s something which businesses simply cannot survive without
http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7662/
Can we build it?
Yes. The ettrema platform (our core technology asset) is a fully fledged file server, and we have calendaring and email abilities and support for contacts isnt far off.