Welcome to our Nextcloud Provisioning and Management Service page.
What is Nextcloud?
Nextcloud is a modern, open source, easy-to-use content collaboration platform accessible through mobile, desktop, and web interfaces. Teams can collaborate in real-time on documents, comment on documents in project groups, engage in video calls, or plan meetings in calendars. Importantly for us, Nextcloud is a strong and socially responsible alternative to services such as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
- Files are stored on the server and are accessed and shared via a web browser.
- Editing of documents and spreadsheets happens in the web browser using Collabora Online.
- An optional synchronization client will let you work with files directly on your Mac or PC running Windows or Linux.
- Encryption in transit and at rest keeps your data secure and the private nature of the server keeps your data away from ‘big tech’.
- Nextcloud is simple to use and requires no special hardware or costly software to access it.
- A simple but stable web browser such as Firefox ESR is all you need.
- Nextcloud ring-fences your organisations data even across a distributed user base.
Is Nextcloud suitable for my organisation?
Nextcloud can find a role in every organisation, but in our view it is ideally suited where the organisations users have a wide range of devices that are not managed by the organisation itself. Users belonging to clubs, Parish and Town Councils or Non-Profits can all work together securely and privately even though they may have completely different IT equipment – all while keeping potentially sensitive data from transferring directly to users systems.
Nextcloud is not suitable for all scenarios. If your staff come to work together in an office then for various reasons a dedicated on or off premise server is typically more suitable, but if the people that work in your organisation are very distributed then Nextcloud could be for you!
How do I get Nextcloud?
For a small organisation, the cheapest, easiest and quickest way to get Nextcloud is to have the Nextcloud software installed on a virtual server ‘instance’. This is a small portion of a server, dedicated to your organisation, that can be provisioned quickly and customised to you. There are a variety of providers in this space, but we’ve yet to find a provider that offers hands on management, in person training, or a dedicated customisation service. Ask us to provide your Nextcloud instance and you’ll get:
- An onboarding session with one of our Nextcloud administrators.
- Initial provisioning of the server including setup of the users, user groups and permissions.
- Ongoing management and oversight of the platform.
- Regular housekeeping and security checks.
- Optional customisation service.
- Optional training in our facility near Norwich.
What are the costs?
There is a one off setup fee and then there is a monthly fee set according to how many users you have on the system. If you move between the stated thresholds then you can do so once per calendar month and the price will change accordingly.
What does the setup fee include?
The setup fee includes all of the labour involved in setting up your new Nextcloud instance, all of the tasks needed to ‘lock down’ the system, plus adding your users and user groups to fit your needs. Users will receive a setup email and links to training materials, one of your users is then nominated as the Nextcloud Manager of the system who will be able to add or remove users, set disk quotas and so on, though if you prefer us to carry on this management we will do so.
What doesn’t the setup fee include?
The setup fee does not include any labour related to migrating your existing documents into Nextcloud. This is relatively straightforward and customers are usually able to do this themselves. We are happy to help with this process subject to our usual hourly rates.
What does the monthly fee include?
The monthly fee pays for the hosting of the Nextcloud instance on our providers server, ensuring the Nextcloud server is highly available and that the service is working as expected. We will also provide up to an hours support per month to the nominated Nextcloud Manager at no additional charge.
What doesn’t the monthly fee include?
The monthly support fee does not cover you for IT support on your own systems. If there is a problem with your computer that means you cannot access Nextcloud, we are happy to help with this subject to our usual hourly rates.
Optional Branding
This option – assuming you provide the artwork and text – means your Nextcloud server can be rebranded with the following features:
- Your own organisations name and slogan.
- Use of your own organisations colour scheme, logo, and login background.
- A link to your own web site, legal notice and privacy policy.
Optional Training
We can train up to four users at a time in our facility at Hevingham. The two hour session covers both basic use and user management so that attendees get the best of of our Nextcloud instances.
Screenshots
A collection of screenshots shown below – all from our demo site!
BELOW – The URL of your Nextcloud server will be something like https://yourorganisation.nextcloudserver.uk. Various elements including the login screen image can be customised to suit for an optional fee.
BELOW – The in browser word processor (there are also spreadsheet, presentation and design tools) based on https://www.collaboraoffice.com/
BELOW – Managing Users and Groups
BELOW – A shared calendar.
BELOW – Subject based chat.
BELOW – A photo library.
BELOW – Activity history.
