NZ hosted Cloud services to use instead of Gmail, Calendar, Drive, etc

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JockTheKiwi

29 posts

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#119628 8-Jun-2013 11:07

Well, privacy is in the news thanks to some US skullduggery so I was wondering what NZ hosted services could I possibly move to instead of GMail and GDocs/Drive. I have a few domains I point at Gmail and am happy to pay some $$$ for this service. I am comfortable to lose some (probably a lot) features that GMail offers.

If necessary I could host something myself, what are options that people are aware of that do not require constant maintenance.

My requirements are:
- Email service with Web interface, can send and receive emails on my phone
- Calendar
- Documents
- access from my phone and computer

fellaintga

195 posts

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#832575 8-Jun-2013 11:13

The Cloud offers hosted exchange and Cloud drives let me know and I could probably get you a free demo.
http://www.thecloud.net.nz/

jarledb

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#832595 8-Jun-2013 11:31

From what I understand, the NZ police can get what they want from NZ ISPs. And if history is any indication, they will happily give out information to the US.

So how will it help going to a NZ service?

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Zeon

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#843870 25-Jun-2013 11:01

Take a look at people offering smartermail hosting which will do all you need on the mail/PIM side. E.g.
https://web-2u.co.nz/index.php/webemail-hosting

jarledb: From what I understand, the NZ police can get what they want from NZ ISPs. And if history is any indication, they will happily give out information to the US.

So how will it help going to a NZ service?

Yes but it does require a court order unlike the US where its carte blanche government take what they want.

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amanzi

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#843877 25-Jun-2013 11:17

If you don't mind self-hosting, there's open source software that provides everything you need. I can't remember the name, so hoping someone else can help out here - but it's a fully integrated solution that provides email, calendar, online storage, etc, in an easy-to-install package. Anyone?

Update - it may have been SME Server I was thinking about, but the website is different to what I remember: http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:About

Another option is Zimbra, but I don't know how easy this is to get up and running?

freitasm

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#843897 25-Jun-2013 11:42

I always think it strange that people worry about hosting their email somewhere "safe" when they communicate to people outside their organisation, which probably aren't hosting in "safe" places. Those emails leaving the organisation will be accessible somehow the moment they leave the gates...

Alislack

5 posts

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#865038 24-Jul-2013 13:52

amanzi: If you don't mind self-hosting, there's open source software that provides everything you need. I can't remember the name, so hoping someone else can help out here - but it's a fully integrated solution that provides email, calendar, online storage, etc, in an easy-to-install package.

That will be Owncloud 5 http://owncloud.org/ demo is here http://demo.owncloud.org/ it syncs webdav/carddav/caldav/ftp for smartphones or desktop including the web interface and has email clients.

A cheap hosting solution is to buy a domain $17pa from http://www.domains4less.co.nz/web-hosting/ and use a starter plan $6.00pm. You can use Direct Admin to create your domain email accounts and access them via the domains Roundcube or use the internal Roundcube app within Owncloud or any other method to downlaod email
http://doc.owncloud.org/server/5.0/admin_manual/configuration/configuration_mail.html

Owncloud 5 has a menu/dock appearance similar to Ubuntu very user friendly there are Contacts/Calendar/Email/Internal Messenger apps to enable users collaborating on a project. Other useful apps in the library include Gallery/Journal/Bookmarks/RSS Reader and Impress. Libre Office 4 has webdav dialog so multiple users to work on the same document on Owncloud, set up is (libre office 4) Tools - Options - General - Use Open/Save Dialogs then File - Open to enter the address of the Owncloud directory.

Desktop file managers capable of webdav have Dropbox like clickndrag functionality.Installation is similar to Wordpress it is a 5MB zip file uncompressed in the webroot directory of a Apache
LAMP/XAMP server or it can be installed to a subdomain of a webhost already running Wordpress and use a Cloudpress app to enable authentication against the Wordpress database so owncloud users can share Owncloud files into the Wordpress blog.

Security is paramount with ClamAV, SSL transfer and end point encryption. Authentication to Windows LDAP servers is also available.