Nextcloud is a good platform for controlling personal/work data. But I am always on the lookout for a simpler solution if it exists. Running Nextcloud for 150+ people means I am needing to use a licensed Collabora Server for online file collaboration and editing. Also the Talk app can be a little taxing and at least requires a Turn server to be running as well. I'm also wanting to include an email server and since nothing is there for Nextcloud, I'm using iRedMail which is a bundled dovecot/postfix server. I chose it because it easily installs OpenLDAP and that allows for a single authentication for both email and Nextcloud. But with iRedMail I have to use the licensed Admin Pro to get some additional features I need. This is the simplest solution I have to meet my needs at this time.

But I just came across the Twake project. Is anyone familiar with this? I'm navigating an on-prem server with it now for testing. Not sure if there is a method to add community apps at this point. So it includes email, files, calendar, contacts, and chat (including video). I'm still getting the pieces set up. It has some mobile apps as well but I have not had a chance to mess with those yet either.

Anyway, just seeing if anyone had input on Twake or another solution, or even a means to simplify my Nextcloud set up.

So, from my perspective I guess the question is, what are the minimum/show-stopper level of requirements, what is your budget, and for those things which are not show-stoppers, what is the percentage of desire you have for them. I do not particularly like nextcloud/owncloud because to me those types of things try to be too many thing at the same time. I personally like single tools that do a single thing very well, and then building the "glue" as needed to bring them together.

I am also learning to farm out things I could do, but don't want to do because I've already wasted too much time on supporting them in the past, to trusted people. One of my trusted circle has a datacenter and one of their services is instances of OnlyOffice within their DC. I also have another trusted friend who is aiming to build a part of their business from hosting nextcloud. These tools are out there for anyone to look at without any investment other than time, and you can host them yourself or pay a trusted individual to host them. If you try to keep everything in a single package, and you don't have enough time to do all the internals and support, you may need to farm it out to someone who does it all the time. I can recommend the people I work with, they are very deeply trusted individuals in the thick of battle.

That is a good process for consideration. Perhaps I should state what led up to this moment. Basically it all started with the cancel culture that seemed to heighten around the time of Covid. I was working for a church at the time that was concerned about using our Google Domain/Apps for everything and getting blacklisted as an org at the same time. So I was asked to research replacement tools that could get us away from corporations that might abuse or misuse our data, or even block us from access their tools. That led me to Nextcloud as I considered on-prem hosting better when I had not hosting provider I could trust. Nextcloud seemed to check all of the boxes to replace Google Apps. Not long into that process I was contacted by the Biglife organization and they asked my advice on doing the same thing. I explained what I was working on and they offered me a job to come and accomplish the Nextcloud solution I proposed. There are unfortunate reasons that play into this story that led me to quickly leave the church I was working for to join Biglife and only then did I really get the opportunity to implement a Nextcloud solution. That was a little over 3 years ago. I should also mention that Biglife is an organization I was praying, for quite some time, to be able to join someday. So as far as that goes, I'm at my dream job.

My scope for the project was to include a single sign-on solution that could incorporate most of the aspects of Google Apps: Email, Calendar, Contacts, Drive and online collaborative editors. However, the org has taken to using Talk (messaging w/video capability) and Deck (kanban boards). Some in the org would prefer if we had a solution with dedicated mobile apps but others seem to like using their current apps for email, calendar, and contacts.

I have gone as far as finding trusted datacenter hosting now and I'm pleased with that. I am not a huge fan of managing both hardware and software. But I have not found connections that I trust for managing software. In that regard I am open to contacts and ideas about these things. Money has not really been spent and I can make a case to spend what is necessary and I think that can also be acceptable given enough experience and knowledge.

I started oycs.com to provide a big-tech alternative for businesses, which covers the basics like email, file storage, chat, shared notes, password management, etc. I'm working on both self-hosted and offsite-hosted versions. If you go to the bottom of oycs.com, you can setup a call and we can chat more about what you are looking for and if there's any alignment with what I've been building.