NextCloud is an open-source cloud software that anyone can freely install it on any Linux-based server and use it’s features. NextCloud is a drop-in replacement for Google Drive, Microsoft’s OneDrive, Apple’s iCloud, DopBox etc. Using NextCloud you can easily manage all your files, securely share them with others. However, NextCloud features do not end here. NextCloud comes with smartphone apps and you can automate the upload of your photos to the cloud and also access your files on the go. NextCloud comes with it’s own apps. Some of the main ones are calendar, contacts, password manager, deck (project management) and NextCloud talk. So basically you will no longer need to use services such as Google which sell your data and access your files and information without your consent.
Why NextCloud? By using NextCloud you will basically take back the ownership of your data. If you have a dedicated NextCloud instance, you will have an administrator account and you can create other users (for instance for your family and friends or your company) and manage all your data via one single platform that YOU OWN.
Why managed NextCloud hosting?
You might ask why you would need a managed NextCloud hosting while it is a free and open-source software and you can install it yourself?!
Yes NextCloud is open-source and yes it is free! but due to security, reliability and redundancy reasons it is a must that you have a reliable Linux-based cloud server which is always accessible and updates. The number cyber threads are increasing exponentially and therefore, managing a Linux server and keeping it updated and secure is a 24/7 full time job. Thus this is recommended that you find a reliable managed hosting company who takes care of the management of your NextCloud instance.
Which NextCloud hosting should I choose?
There are thousands of Managed NextCloud hosting providers but as NextCloud is a free-to-use software, many ISPs (who are famous for selling their customers data) have started to offer managed NextCloud services as well. Thus choosing the right company to trust is really important.
We ourselves are using the managed NextCloud services of one of our partners, My Secure Space, a company based in Vienna Austria. Here are the reasons that we have chosen this comapany:
They are based in the European region, and in specific the DACH reagion (DACH= Germany, Austria and Switzerland). This region has the toughest privacy terms in the world and if anything happens we can sue them easily. The company in this region are not allowed to touch your data if you do not have your consent.
Their privacy policy and their terms of service is pretty straight forward and they clearly mention that they do not sell or even access their users data. They do not even have trackers such as google analytics (or others on their website).
They freely offer the server-side encryption feature with their dedicated plans. However, this is important to mention that the server-side encryption can be a little tricky as in the major NextCloud version upgrades, you might need to decrypt and again encrypt your files. The reason is that like any other technology the encryption technology is also advancing. And sometimes due to the major difference between the old and the new technologies, this is impossible to upgrade from one version to the other. And therefore, all the data should be encrypted from the scratch.
They are an independent company not affiliated with any of the large corporations such as Microsoft and Google.
However, to be transparent we should mention again that this company is our partner and we are working with them for a long time. You should really evaluate the hosting companies for yourself to see which one fits your needs the best. But apart of partnership, we have been really satisfied with their service and we do recommend them.
