Local Accesable Storage vs. Cloud Storage

[PrinceXizor]

I will soon be working as the admin for a non-profit organization that is invovled in various engineering (mostly architectural) projects. We would like to have some form of shared document control source since volunteers will not be in one centralized location.

The easiest solution is some sort of cloud storage. However, its not quite so simple because of the nature of the work a more robust document/version control check-in/check-out system would be most efficient. Something different could be used but would be much more labor intensive (on my end!).

The flip side is me setting up an internet accessible drive storage system. The downside to that include setting up the initial server (cost plus my lack of experience), mitigating down time, redundancy, proper back up, security, access.

Anyone deal with these issues? Any suggestions? I mentioned the non-profit part because cost is most definitely an issue. Thanks in advance!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

http://www.egnyte.com/file-server/online-file-server-features.html

File locking and checkout
Users can lock files for modification (file check-out). Once a file is locked (checked out), other users can view the file, but cannot edit or upload changes until the file has been unlocked (file check-in).

Might work for you.

If you decide to go the "roll your own" route, I'd probably consider an Amazon EC2/S3 solution instead of buying hardware and supporting it locally. (Virtualized server in Amazon's datacenter, you set it up with whatever OS/software you want, and add storage from Amazon's S3 service. Redundancy/backup is provided by Amazon, no initial hardware purchase cost, and control-wise, it's the next best thing to having the actual hardware in your basement.)

To be fair, other companies offer similar services.

 

[BrightCandle]

Bit hub might also do this job. A real source control system and storage for your repository in the cloud. Depends on the contents o the files if that can work