ISO Online non-syncing file storage for small organization

October 10, 2023 10:21 AM

I'm looking for an online, non-syncing(!) file storage system for a small organization (say 10 users). Our users need to go to a website, click the upload or download button, pick documents and click "go". We do need a folder tree structure. Editing in place would be nice as well but we could live without it. Limitations below the fold.

Limitation 1: We don't want organization documents to be synced to members' personal computers automatically, so a syncing app like dropbox is out. Relying on 'selective sync' or similar is too complicated for our users. If it could be set up at the admin level, that would be ok.

Limitation 2: We would like the storage to be accessible via simple site-specific username and password, like metafilter, not via "login using using your gmail account/facebook/etc!". The reason for this is too long to type out, but just take it as a hard requirement. This probably cancels out google drive afaik.

Volume isn't an issue.
Any ideas? I'm having trouble getting google to return useful results.

posted by bluesky78987 to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Dropbox would work for this. Just don't install the app and use the website instead.
posted by neckro23 at 11:06 AM on October 10, 2023 [6 favorites]

Best answer: I've never used Dropbox for sync. I just upload things and keep them there using my browser.

If you don't want to use it, I'd check out Box and Mega. Box will let you create documents and work with them right inside the drive.
posted by soelo at 11:49 AM on October 10, 2023

Best answer: You might want to take a look at https://nextcloud.com/ if you haven't already. It seems to satisfy a lot of your requirements. It can be set up as a syncable service, but doesn't have to be. If you want to install a small instance on your own hardware, you can use https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#nextcloud-all-in-one, which provides Nextcloud and support services as a docker image. It might be overkill, but provides a very nice experience. It provides on-site backups and in-place document editing. I've used it as my home server for 18 months or so and it's worked well for me.
posted by sloggingthrough at 1:31 PM on October 10, 2023

Best answer: Dropbox and box.com will give you individual accounts for each person but you then need them to do the work of sharing things with the correct people.

For small companies SharePoint online pretty much dominates this area, you will get OneDrive which is like a simplified box.com and then a SharePoint library for the shared/master copy of documents.
SharePoint does support folder trees, but most people find the filtered columns work much better.
posted by Lanark at 3:31 PM on October 10, 2023

I use Google drive and it's easy.
posted by theora55 at 5:10 PM on October 10, 2023

I urge you to consider Johnny Decimal for folder organisation. It has transformed my incredibly messy home and work computers to where I am now the go-to person for finding documentation, not a black hole.

Also I have found requiring people to date stamp versions very helpful - I put YYYYMMDD name of file routinely and can quickly check and sort - date creation and modified metadata gets messed up moving files around and just date stamping the front of files means you can sort alphabetically.

Write down a 1 page on how the filing system works and put it as a reader.txt at the top folder and also email everyone involved.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:20 PM on October 10, 2023 [1 favorite]