Setting Up It Infrastructure From Scratch

Setting Up It Infrastructure From Scratch. I have searched google before posting but i couldn&#39t find not because there is none but because I have no idea on the correct search words for such cases I tried “building IT infrastruture from scratch” and various others but to no avail They don&#39t talk about setting up from scratch from an EMPTY building that is just finished.

Creating and setting up an IT infrastructure isn’t easy but it’s not all that difficult either You should always determine your needs before going forward That way you won’t waste any resources What’s more it wouldn’t hurt to consult with professionals especially if it’s your first time setting up such an infrastructure.

Beginner’s Guide to IT Infrastructure Management Smartsheet

Keep Processes Intuitive It’s important that when setting up your IT infrastructure you set clear boundaries and processes to follow from the outset opting always for permanent and traceable fixes As a business owner or manager you need to avoid the urge to over engineer your system building up a web of cheap temporary fixes to patch.

How to Set Up an IT Infrastructure For Your Small Business

Run Services on Your Own Serversonly OpenSource SoftwareKolab For Email and CalendaringownCloud Or Nextcloud For File Sharing/Document CollaborationMatrix For Instant MessagingLinuxbased OS and Software For Workstationsin Short All Open SourceThe first thing I’m going to decide on right up front is to selfhost as many services as I possibly can Sure there are noteworthy benefits to paying another company host and maintain your services for you (primary that you don’t have to have someone on staff to perform that function) but the drawbacks far outweigh the good points Having full control over your own data — how it is stored and who it is shared with — is critical to any business (and any individual) Most of the choices I make below would also work as a remotely hosted option But where possible I will focus on them being selfhosted Some of the following functionality can be hosted on a single server but I recommend breaking out key services to run on dedicated servers — possibly many depending on your particular needs (such as an expectation of large file repositories) or large numbers of employees For security and customization reasons I will be opting to utilize only opensource and free software here There are simply far too many drawbacks to basing a corporate infrastructure on closed source systems This decision was easy and obvious for anyone who’s worked in IT for more than a few years For email calendaring and general groupware functionality (meeting requests and the like) I opt to go with Kolab It’s open source and there’s a company behind it that will provide paid support as needed or desired Kolab has a great web interface for all of the key functionality but it will work just as well with almost any email and calendar clients in existence Since we’ll be going all open source file sharing (and online file storage) options such as Dropbox and Google Drive are simply not an option There are some features along these lines built into Kolab but not quite enough I’d like something a little more powerful and extensible which means running either Owncloud or Nextcloud The two systems are very similar in many respects — not surprising because Nextcloud is forked from and run by the founder of Owncloud Both will in all reality meet most file sharing/storage needs quite well However OwnCloud does contain some closed source bits focusing on larger organizations On the flipside NextCloud has made a public commitment to offer all features as 100% free and open source software With that in mind I would opt to go with NextCloud As an added bonus NextCloud handles document collaboration quite well via Collabora Online Two birds one stone No Using Google Hangouts is not a reasonable option for your company’s instant messaging Neither is Skype We need something that a) can be hosted in house b) is open source and c) is as secure and private as possible I’ve opted to go with Matrix Not only does it check all of those three key criteria but it has two rather interesting features that while may not be used are nice to have around as options 1 A decentralized design Meaning that as the organization grows new server instances could be added say for different parts of the company or different locales 1 The ability to bridge Matrix to other services such as IRC Slack etc This can make it much easier to integrate with external teams or communities Again Maybe those your organization will never use those two features but having them around doesn’t hurt Bonus points Matrix handles video chats Got a big remote team? If everyone’s on Matrix there’s no need for companyissued cell phones (or land lin Not choosing Microsoft Windows is the first obvious decision here The cost is to high (both in terms of upfront monetary investment and recurring costs associated with securing a closed platform) MacOS is for the same reason off the table What specific platform I chose at that point comes down to what my specific needs are within the organization Chance are I would select a Linuxbased platform (either a free Linux distribution – Debian openSUSE Fedora etc – or a similar system with paid support) Support is the main reason to consider a paid closed system anyway so might as well get all the benefits with none of the drawbacks of a system like Windows Save money increase security No brainer For applications I’d also standardize around LibreOfficefor the office suite and one of the several opensource web browsers (such as Firefox) Clearly an all opensource workplace makes the most sense Save money Be more secure More flexible Those are all good things If you’re reading this and you are responsible for making IT decisions within your company remember all of these when it comes time to renew your Microsoft Exchange license Or it’s time to upgrade Windows Or pay for yet another month/quarter of your video conferencing and file storage system Maybe my specific choices here won’t match your needs exactly but for most of you there are going to be opensource solutions that will.