Hi Peeps,
The Director is wanting to install a server based system between our two offices so that all files can be centralised and thus shared between both offices.
The offices generally work independantly from each other so I don't think the benefits will outweigh the draw backs. Just to give me an idea of how things would work can anyone give me an idea of how efficient these setups can be.
My concerns are security but mainly performance related. We generally just work with Word & Excell documents so its just a case of how much of a delay would you expect opening a word doc for instance. I don't want simple tasks to become drawn out just to facilitate the once in a blue moon that a doument is needed from another office.

What sort of setup & ongoing costs are expected? Both offices are on broadband and have independant web domains so I guess the ongoing cost are nothing more than a static IP for the server…
Anything else I need to be thinking about?

Cheers for the heads up guys

You could consider a web based system like dropbox. It stores files locally and keeps a copy on the 'net. When one is modified any copies are updated. I use it at home, not sure how well it would work in a real office.

I've obviously no idea what your business workflow looks like, so whether it's the right solution for you or not I couldn't say. Do you -need- access to each others' files?

Based on what little information you've provided, I'd perhaps suggest having a server at each site and have them synchronise data; that way, everyone's using a local copy of their files for performance reasons.

How fast it'd be to open docs in the scenario you propose depends on a multitude of factors; the speed on the links between offices, the number of users in your organisation, etc etc.

For me, the biggest driving factor to move to a server solution would be backups and disaster recovery. What do you do currently if a PC hard disk crashes irrecoverably? "Sorry, you've lost the last ten years' work"? Is that acceptable?

If you're a small business, why not just use Google Apps or similar? Saves you the cost of the infrastructure.

This way you also get to use buzzwords like, 'moving to the cloud' in meetings

Sorry, a bit more info. We have two offices.
In 1st office only has one PC. Backups are done by person on this office daily on a removable HDD that is taken away.
In the 2nd office there are 5 PC's and 5 members of staff. All work files are held on a network storage drive so everyone can access. Backups are done from this daily and taken away as is done in the other office.
The Boss wants to access files from the two offices from both locations and also from home (we operate a 24 hours service so a member of staff being able to access these files from home would be beneficial).
Files are basically held in a clients folder and everyone uses these files if dealing with that client.

At the moment things seem tickety boo and runs well with speed, security (closed network) and backups. My concenrn is that if a client rings up and it takes an age to open a file then its just unprofessional expecting them to wait, especially as things work well at the mo.

How are the offices connected to each (assuming they are), if via a site-to-site VPN then you should only need a share with the files in at the main office and you should be able to map a drive to that from the single office PC and see the files. Then just test the performance to see if it's acceptable. As for remote accessing the files I'd look into setting up a VPN endpoint in the main office as well (whether on an existing firewall/router with that functionality or deploy something like Microsoft RRAS, I'm sure there's cheaper/easier to configure 3rd party options to but not used them myself.

At the moment the offices are independant. The connection is what they want to establish. The offices work as independant businesses and at the moment what little files the Boss needs is shared via Live Sync (windows Live) as there is little shared at the moment. The Boss wants Full acces though and effectivly a centralised Files stoarge location with joint access

What Cougar says re: back ups and synching and disaster recovery.
Relying on manual back ups is a no no.

You need is a vpn solution to dial into the server from home or the remote office.
Should work fine, but it depends upon the speed of your connection and the size of your files.
To be honest go and speak to a profesional company, as it will be cheaper to do it properly once than do it badly tweice
(Google Apps are pants,IMHO)

You want a site to site VPN between both the offices, that way people from each office could connect in theory to \\office1\sharedocs and also \\office2\sharedocs.

With a bit of luck the routers you have already for the internet connections at both ends will probably support that, so all it is is a matter of setting it up. Sometimes it is easier to make the routers the same make and model at both ends though.

Once you have that, you can use various flavours of sync software to copy the documents from the office1 server to office2 and vice versa for DR purposes.

To be honest go and speak to a profesional company, as it will be cheaper to do it properly once than do it badly tweice

^^ this.

To be honest go and speak to a profesional company, as it will be cheaper to do it properly once than do it badly tweice

Absolutely.

On the Google Apps thing, perhaps I should have been a bit clearer – keep the existing MS Office solution, and use Sites/Docs to store the data centrally. Can even get a plugin to integrate directly from Office.

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/collaboration_value.html
http://www.offisync.com/index.html

IMHO cheaper and easier than setting up and maintaining a VPN solution for 5 employees if you don't have the skills in house to do it. Backups are taken care of, and the boss can show off by accessing docs from his iPhone at the golf club.

I'm sure there are other solutions out there if you don't like Google (like nickjb's suggestion).

Whatever works for the OP I guess. So many variables to consider.

Cheers for info guys, I'll get someone to come in and make some suggestions and get some costs. Cougars idea sounds like it would most suit us. A server at each office so both offices could work locally but having a main shared folder that could be synced. A VPN to one of the networks would provide off site access to all info.
Whats the most affective Backup procedure then. At the moment it is done automatically with the Externall HDD being taken off site to cover fires etc. I'm assuming some kind of off site automatic back up is the way forward

Just a thought, If i'm working on a document in office 1 and someone else opens and alters the same document on office 2 how does it sync the data if both copies have been altered?

Gravitysucks – it won't let two people open it for writing. The second person gets a message saying it's already open, and you can either wait and get notified when they close it, or open it read-only.

Thought that was the case with one shared folder but if you have a shared folder on each network which is synced would this be the same?

VPN will cost and they can be dodgy if not set-up properly.

i'd go the web based route, all the hard work is down for you for a yerly fee.

everything will be backed up online aswell.

VPN wont cost anything if the routers already support the function, which most do.

For backups you can use something like mozy

really depends if you buy into the whole cloud based stuff etc..

Probably – I would say that either the lock file that Word generates will be synced and picked up by each person's Word, or the syncing tool will pick up what modifications have been made.

If you have a VPN, then you are effectively linking the offices onto the same network. So from a file sharing point of view, you are all on the same network. That's what VPN does for you.

There won't be a delay opening documents provided you have a decent link. And in any case, any other solution would also be depended on the speed of your link just the same.

VPN box = few hundred quid.

TBH, the synced servers idea I proposed is probably overkill for one person. I'd just have them work remotely.

I do this sort of thing for a living

Thres quite a few options. Using UNC paths (\\office2\sharedocs) over VPNs would be slow as hell if you're using standard ADSL line. Theres too much network over head.

It looks like your current set up is pretty basic and it sounds like your budget might be a bit tight.

If you can stretch to a few hundred quid then you might want to consider upgrading to Windows Small Business Server and implement Sharepoint. That way you can store your documents centrally, have it backed up centrally and easily manage who has access to said documents. You can then use a VPN to dial in an access the sharepoint portal. It's all web based so will be quick and deployable to any number of machines, internally or externally.

An upgrade like this can bring you access to your email from the web as well as proper integrated security.

Its fairly easy to implement too.