Nextcloud is a suite of client-server software for creating and using file hosting services. It is enterprise-ready with comprehensive support options. Being free and open-source software, anyone is allowed to install and operate it on their own private server devices.
Nextcloud is an open source, on-premises cloud storage software solution that provides an easy way to store, sync, share and access data from anywhere. It makes collaboration easier for you, your employees, and your clients by enabling them to have the same information on their devices as you do on yours. Nextcloud also works with popular CRM and project management software, making integration a breeze.
Nextcloud also provides many other business-critical features such as real-time collaboration, calendar sharing, voice chat, video chat, instant messaging, and much more.
As an on-premises solution, Nextcloud allows you to keep all of your data at your physical location if you wish – giving you complete control of your organization’s privacy and security.
We use Nextcloud extensively at Jordan Solutions; to both collaborate with our clients and to share business-critical files with our employees.
So, how can Nextcloud benefit your business?
Features
Easy Access
Nextcloud has a web interface that can be accessed from any browser, with any device. This interface allows you to edit or view files, send messages with Talk, access your email, sync your calendar, or use any of the other powerful features Nextcloud provides.
In addition to the web interface, Nextcloud also supports desktop sync clients, mobile apps and third-party storage services – allowing you to transparently view and update your files directly from your device’s file explorer.
The Nextcloud app can also be used set up an auto-upload folder that will be synced with the cloud automatically. This could be used, for example, to immediately sync images from your phone as soon as they are taken, making them instantly available to whoever they are shared with through Nextcloud.
Sharing and Access Control
Sharing files is a very common task in every business – employees need to share files among themselves or with clients on a daily basis. Typical solutions involve directly emailing attachments or uploading files into a FTP directory, but these quickly fall apart as a business grows. Nextcloud aims to solve the issue of file sharing by implementing an extremely elegant share interface. Employees (or clients) simply upload files and share a link with the recipient. These links can be configured to only work for certain groups (eg Employees), or viewable by anybody, or editable by anybody – completely configurable.
A common use of Nextcloud’s file sharing is setting up a new directory for each client you work with. The client can then upload folders or images of the project, and your employees can access and edit the contents of the folder. No more versioning headache – what the client sees is what every one of your employees sees. Because Nextcloud is set up to be secure by default, only directories you share with people are viewable by them. It is extremely easy to configure directories that are only viewable/editable by your Employees while having other files viewable/editable only by certain clients.
Nextcloud is also a fantastic solution to Employee training. Simply create a training directory, shared with your employees, that contains all of the information the employees need to get started. Onboarding has never been so easy.
While Nextcloud has built-in support for user account groups and access control, it also supports LDAP or Active Directory – allowing it to integrate with the rest of your business’s Single Sign On infrastructure. Nextcloud also supports advanced security features like App Passwords (so you don’t have to share your user account password with each and every app you connect) and Two-Factor-Authentication.
Calendar & Contacts (CardDAV/CalDAV/WebCal)
The Nextcloud Calendar app has been designed to be a simple and intuitive way of organizing your business. It comes with numerous features including monthly, weekly, daily views, agenda view and more. Nextcloud Calendars can also sync with a number of other popular calendar apps such as Outlook, Apple Calendar, Google Calendar and more – allowing you to directly edit your Nextcloud calendar from your device of choice. You can even share calendars like files and edit them collaboratively.
Creating a company-wide calendar of events, like meetings, is a good idea. This will help promote future events and keep everyone in the loop. Employees will be able to see this calendar on their personal devices, and (if they are given access) even edit it.
Nextcloud also has built-in support for tasks. These tasks can be assigned priority and ownership, given details such as location or descriptions, and even given sub-tasks. Nextcloud Tasks can be accessed from the browser or displayed on your devices with an app like OpenTasks.
Finally, Nextcloud Contacts enables users to upload, share, and sync contacts with their devices to your company’s cloud. It solves the problem of not having a central address book by automatically syncing data across devices.
Announcements
Nextcloud Announcements allows you to send messages to everyone in your company at once. You can use this feature to send special reminders about meetings and deadlines, so that your employees won’t forget about them. Since announcements are tied in with the Groups system, group-specific announcements can also be made.
This is especially useful for Incident Response. If the company needs to be alerted of an issue immediately, this is the best way to do it.
Nextcloud Deck (Kanban)
The Kanban system is an agile method for managing work on a project or product. It uses cards to represent tasks and moves them between columns as they progress through the workflow. Cards can be easily re-prioritized if any changes have been made to the project scope.
Nextcloud Deck brings Kanban boards to the Nextcloud ecosystem for a more efficient way of managing your work and collaborating with others. Nextcloud Deck tasks (like Nextcloud Tasks tasks) can be assigned ownership and priority, or given details such as location, due date, or description. Integrating with the existing group, sharing, and access control systems, Nextcloud Deck is a powerful solution to your project management needs.
Nextcloud Talk
Nextcloud Talk is a WebRTC-based video chat and instant messaging service that integrates directly with Nextcloud. It replaces existing business collaboration tools like Slack or Teams with an open-source alternative with tight Nextcloud integration.
In addition to allowing one-on-one chats, Nextcloud Talk also allows users to create their own groups known as Circles. Circles are a convenient way for your team members to communicate and collaborate instantly about work related topics that interest them.
Nextcloud Talk also provides a platform for discussion, comments, and project management on uploaded files between employees and clients. Many of the other Nextcloud features also integrate into Talk, allowing users to seamlessly share things such as calendars, tasks, or contacts.
Nextcloud Maps
Nextcloud Maps offers opt-in tracking for user devices. This is exceptionally useful for tracking things like business devices or delivery drivers. Nextcloud Maps is accessible from the web interface, and has full integration with all of the powerful access control features present in Nextcloud.
Nextcloud Mail
Nextcloud Mail gives your employees an easy-to-use webmail interface capable of connecting to your existing SMTP / IMAP infrastructure. It allows users to access their emails from any device as well as integrate it with other Nextcloud apps like calendar, contacts, and tasks.
End-to-End Encryption (BETA)
This is a beta feature. It may be too unstable for business-critical use in your organization.
The goal of Nextcloud is to give organizations control over their data, including the ability to specify who can access and modify it. With E2EE, the user has the option of encrypting data at rest on the server. This means that even if an attacker were to gain access to the server, they would still be unable to decrypt any content stored on the account.
This feature may be useful for organizations that require strong protection of their data, or those with no trust of the hardware or software that Nextcloud is running on.
Collaborative Editing (BETA)
This is a beta feature. It may be too unstable for business-critical use in your organization.
Nextcloud has built-in support for collaborative editing software such as Collabora and OpenOffice. You can collaborate on Microsoft Office files, PDFs, text files, etc., directly from the Nextcloud web interface without any conversion needed.
Nextcloud Passwords (BETA)
This is a beta feature. It may be too unstable for business-critical use in your organization.
Nextcloud Passwords is a password manager that allows you to save all your passwords and login information in one place. Like Nextcloud, it is available on any device, meaning you can access your passwords and login information from anywhere. There are browser extensions available for all major browsers, including Chrome and Firefox.
Using Nextcloud Passwords, you could save all of your passwords in just a few clicks and automatically log into any site that you visit. Nextcloud Passwords also allows you to share your passwords across your organization (although not to an entire group yet, only individually), meaning it is possible to share access to business-related accounts effortlessly.
With Nextcloud Passwords, your users would not need to remember passwords anymore. It even allows you to generate a strong, cryptographically secure password whenever you wish, so you only have to remember one password – the one you need to log in to your Nextcloud account. You would no longer have to worry about an account being compromised – if every password you have is unique all you would need to do is reset the password for the compromised service.
Want to learn more?
Do you think Nextcloud is right for your business? Contact us today to learn more about Nextcloud and how Jordan Solutions can help you integrate it into your business.