Server setup for small business reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- pitayaman · 2023-09-29 15:54 Hi, I have a small business, roughly 40 people. About 15 of them and growing have at rate of 3-4 per month, are working for external clients, sort of like a staffing service so they still have some interaction with the main org but not daily. The rest are very active on Google Chat. I would like to install mattermost because it would save me a few bucks vs slack. We are currently using Google Chat but I hate it. I also want to give them access to bitwarden for password management. I would like to set it up so that is as easy to manage and as reliable as possible. I was thinking of a PaaS such as fly.io. We also have an internal Rails and few small ruby apps and scripts we need to manage currently in Heroku and DO boxes respectively. We also want to add some Python apps for data science workflows. We have a small developer team of two, and myself, I am the CEO but technically inclined, and I’m managing myself the infra we have. What would you recommend? We have offices but they are in Mexico City, and I’m in Canada and the rest of the country is scattered across North America, mostly Mexico though. What would you recommend? Would love to hear your thoughts on how to manage something like this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-09-29 16:06 Hire someone. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- pitayaman · 2023-09-29 16:37 Yes of course, thats the obvious... I have a team... My question is more related on the software stack and infra to manage this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NMS-Town · 2023-09-29 16:46 Projeqtor should have you covered. Mattermost is nice, but you'd really need a dedicated admin to setup and run something like that in order to get the full benefit. Projeqtor also has team meetings and a chat option. It sounds like you can handle properly setting it up. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- christancho · 2023-09-29 19:14 Have you thought of a Synology-based in-house hosted solution? Synology has email, chat and Google docs-like applications with no monthly fee. For you apps you could use Docker along with a secure tunnel such as Cloudflare tunnels and Zero-trust to integrate them all. Give it a thought. Cheers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BCIT_Richard · 2023-09-29 19:42 It might not be the BEST overall option, but I feel like Docker + Portainer and some Network know how will get you where you want to be. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- athornfam2 · 2023-09-29 20:44 This is going to be tough love. 40 person business is not a place to self host it yourself DIY. Hire someone that is knowledgeable and make them responsible to build the environment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UtensilOwl · 2023-09-29 21:25 There are multiple things you really need to think through before reworking it. Will you be the sole responsible person for it, do you have service windows outside of the ordinary and can you personally keep up with them? Breaks and issues costs you more than money. Will you host everything yourself, how will you keep up with 3-2-1 backups, cause you WILL need them. Dot NOT underestimate time required to maintain systems like these. This is why firms with a size like yours either hires or outsources. Design and your users willingness to learn are two big factors in this setting as well. You’d want to have a user directory for central authentication (For ease and security), but you also need to enforce security features that your users will more than likely need time to adjust to 2fa’s or other things like Bitwarden/Vaultwarden. Security for a setup like sharing passwords and 2fa needs to be absolutely 100% bulletproof. Test test test changes and deployments, have a superuser group to test changes. You have no insight in what can break for other users. That or have them work out a testing procedure with you. What happens if a deployment that has been green lit through testing is broken anyway and what is your guarantee that it is fixed for as little downtime as possible. This is no small feat, and I haven’t even begun to touch on other aspects of manageability when it comes to HR and compliance. Check online resources for this sort of work. If you insist on holding everything in house, and considering you are asking r/selfhosted, buy a few hours consultancy to make sure you get everything right. Best of luck. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- pitayaman · 2023-09-29 21:45 Yeah, I have Synology myself at home and love it. Definitely given it some thought, to be honest at this point we are so embedded into the Google Office Suite ecosystem that is hard to go outside of that. But for the employees that are not in the staffing service this is not possible, but for the employees who in the staffing business and they dont interact daily with mother org, i think it would be a good solution as it gives me a lightweight, no cost per user way, to have them fully connected to the company but without paying crazy monthly fees. With all the stuff we have we are spending quite a bit of cash on this. Some of it can be avoided some of it is necessary. But thanks for the suggestion! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- candle_in_a_circle · 2023-09-30 09:57 It’s not the answer you want but, as someone who has been in the same position as you (small and growing business owner with technical inclinations, but not a specifically technical role) I hope you’ll accept some unsolicited advice? First, use Slack. Eat the cost. The administrative overhead of running something similar will cost more, and the risk of downtime’s cost to the business will make it a false economy. Also, employers expect to use ‘standard’ software and see it as a sign of a successful business. Second, optimise for ease of administration over cost. The ‘cattle not pets’ metaphor is paramount when it’s a business not a hobby. Third, and this one is a bit direct so take it or leave it as your constitution desires; stop being technically inclined. You can work ‘in’ the business or ‘on’ the business but not both, and you’re the only person in the world who can do the latter and the former is a commodity. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- naffhouse · 2023-09-30 14:26 I wouldn't self host an enterprise application on premise ---------------------------------------------------------------------- pitayaman · 2023-09-30 15:38 No, im thinking having dedicated VPS adding Kamal on top of the boxes, or even a PaaS such as fly.io ---------------------------------------------------------------------- naffhouse · 2023-09-30 15:42 That's a better idea. You don't want to have to deal with the box being down, it's not worth the savings ---------------------------------------------------------------------- isThisRight-- · 2023-10-01 18:12 Yeah hire someone to figure it all out. If you’re the CEO spend your time solving the business problems not the infra problems. Outsource an MSP or direct hire and let them solve these problems.