Outsource vs Insource
Why should I give my personal data to someone else if you can store it safe on your server? Middle sized companies have small budget for IT and think the data is more secure in the cloud - but this could be the opposite - unsafe and expensive.
I don't know the exact statistic but lets believe that more than 50% of all endusers do not change their password once in two years. How many percent do it twice a year as it should be? Big companies do have their password policy which expiration date which is definitely annoying users. Even more strict policy do not allow to use the password twice so *password1* moves to password12 and so on. But what happens if you are connected to cloud driven mail servers?
In this section I want to show possibilities to have your own auth server with - your own data server - your own cloud - and all inhouse. Who ever thinks this is complicated administration task for specialist i can honestly say - your kids can do it.
OpenVPN AS
OpenVPN the best solution of private networks. OpenVPN AS the paradise of super easy config. Some tweaks and this is the one of the most usable peace of Quality
Active Directory
Microsoft® Active Directory is good - and expensive. The univention corporate server does the same good job and even the community edition allows you to serve a stable authentication system. You can manage ucs as client or standalone.
File Server
UCS as auth backend and a Synology® Disc Station as fileserver is giving you a lightweight and fast Samba4 domaindriven userland. For sure your can do the same on univention but we want to separate storage. Use NFS, AFS, SMB it is your choice!
Web Server
When it comes to config people want to click not write. Just for fun here is the howto do it on univention or Synology®. The installation of CMS, ERP, HRM or CRM made easy.