Small business "server"

I need some sound advice. Here is my scenario.

I work for a small (employee wise) company. We currently operate off a Lenova Thinkpad laptop. By operate I mean all our reports, pictures quotes etc are stored on that laptop. About 20gb worth of data.

I would to make that data available to multiple users at multiple locations so any changes made to quotes, can be viewed by all. But I want to make sure only one user can work any given document at one time. I can't have my boss trying to edit a form while I'm already doing so.

We also need to maintain the hierarchy setup that exists on the Thinkpad. But I want the info OFF Thinkpad completely. That laptop is nearing its final days.

Can anyone recommend an online server(cost is not an issue)? I don't think in 2013 I actually need to have physical servers at our office. But I could be wrong?!

Will cloud type services work? I don't want to have pull a document down from cloud, edit it & save it again to the cloud.

I just need some advice.

 

Just buy 50 gb worth of dropbox space. Doesn't sound like you need a server and network for that size of business.

 

Can I set up a Dropbox in similiar fashion as the laptop? We have separate folders for each manufacturer. Then within the manuf. folder, we have folders for each job we have done.

And thanks for the fast response! I've heard of Dropbox, just never thought to use them.

 

Dropbox is the same as any windows file share. You may create whatever you like inside, folders, files, as many hierarchies as you have now, then you'll install it on whatever PC you need to access the files.

 

This may work. I'm looking into Dropbox Teams. We only have 4 people who will need access to the files.

Thanks again

 

Dropbox is a good idea and it sounds like you really just need web based storage so check out Google drive and Google apps for business.

 

I wonder how will I upload all my files? Can I just drop and drop the entire drive into Dropbox?

 

Yep, 20 gb will take quite a while to upload, so be prepared for an extended copy. Make sure you are doing a copy rather than a move.

 

Using Dropbox for example, if I'm revising quote #1 (considering there is only 1 quote #1) I do not want any other user to be able to write changes until I save and exit. Is this the case?
I question this because it looks like using DB, all the editing is completed on your machine.
Make sense?

 

Yeah, it's a simple windows file share, so ideally its going to tell another user that the file is in use and its open for read only, however I wouldn't count on that and you would want to make sure others knew you were working in it.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/help/36/en

 

That answers that! I called and spoke with a rep. @ Dropbox. It surprised me when a human actually picked up on the line after the 2nd ring.

We are going to try their 14 trial by uploading about 2gb of our data. I need to find a solution so we can stop emailing this stuff back and forth to each other.