A Great DIY or Managed Cloud Service
July 05, 2019

A Great DIY or Managed Cloud Service

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with ownCloud

I currently use ownCloud for cloud services such as file syncing, centralized calendar and contacts, as well as file sharing—even large files—with others. As an IT contractor, ownCloud has been great for enabling my access to business information anywhere I have access to the Internet (with limited functionality offline as well). I'm able to use my mobile device so I can schedule events that appear on my phone's calendar, as well as on my desktop/laptop machines. I don't need to worry about forgetting files, because I can always reach out over the net to retrieve them. If I save files on my laptop while with a client, I can access them on my office computer effortlessly. ownCloud is an elegant solution for much of my vital digital resources.

Pros

  • File Synchronization
  • Synchronized Contacts
  • Synchronized Calendar
  • File Sharing

Cons

  • Online Document Editor (new feature)
  • Web Media Player (new feature)
  • Increased Productivity
  • Better Customer Service
  • Enhanced Organization
ownCloud is better than Google Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive. I have not used Google Drive in some time now, so it may have improved. OneDrive has become better over time too, but my go-to is still ownCloud. Firstly, I prefer to have my data under my control. No other service can offer the level of control that ownCloud does. Setting that aside, in my experience Google Drive never quite got syncing right. Unless you have a very small collection of files and you're not synced across many devices, Google Drive fails to achieve a complete sync. The icon is always showing that Drive is syncing (and not up to date). I've had similar issues with OneDrive, but these days on Windows 10 OneDrive usually can achieve a complete sync across multiple devices, but it often hogs CPU and Network resources to do so, and it's still slower than OneDrive.
Compared with other cloud services, ownCloud has been the most efficient. It doesn't create a noticeable drain on resources and very quickly syncs across all my devices. I'm usually able to save a file on my laptop and by the time I walk over and sit down at my desktop machine, it's already there. I don't need to wait as often as I have with services like OneDrive.
OwnCloud is easy for me to use, and I believe it would be for others too. The barrier for most people will be the set up. For a technology professional like myself, ownCloud's set up is pretty straightforward, but it's not the sort of thing most casual users will be able to handle. Also, it's on the user to maintain the service. These can be taken care of by paying someone to do it for you.
I'd easily recommend ownCloud to small businesses or teams within organizations. I've not used ownCloud in large deployments, so I'd hesitate before suggesting it in a situation where more than 10 users need support. That said, ownCloud is easy to set up and multiple instances could be used to service a large user base.

ownCloud Feature Ratings

Versioning
9
Video files
7
Audio files
7
Document collaboration
4
Access control
8
File search
5
Device sync
10
User and role management
8
File organization
9
Device management
Not Rated
Performance
8
Reliability
9
Storage Reports
8

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