Snow Leopard Server a good fit for my law practice?

[OCDMacGeek]

Hello,

I have recently become interested in Snow Leopard Server and am determining whether it is a good for for my small law practice. I would appreciate your thoughts.

My brother and I are both attorneys and work closely together, although I am in Montana and he is in Missouri. It is important for us to collaborate on projects. We currently use Daylite and MobileMe (along other solutions) to keep our projects, contacts, calendars, and files synchronized.

I have a Mac Pro, which acts as a server for the Daylite program. The files, contacts, and calendars are served in the cloud from MobileMe.

This works relatively well, but after reading more about Snow Leopard Server, I wonder if we would be better off using an OS that is designed for serving such data. I am not completely certain, however, whether the server OS would improve upon the current system.

There are nice Address Book and iCal serving tools that might resolve problems we are having with occasional hiccups with syncing between Daylite and MobileMe on both our machines. It looks like there are nice file sharing options that might resolve problems with iDisk we occasionally have.

Some of the administration options might be nice. I update software more often than my brother, and it would be nice to manage his software updates easily. I think the server OS allows an admin to control such things.

I currently run a standard client installation of Snow Leopard. Is it possible to migrate relatively easily to Server?

My brother's computer is also running a Snow Leopard client. As his computer will not be serving data, will he still need to install the Server OS?

Are there any typical software conflicts, where Mac software doesn't run on the Server OS? All this might be moot if Daylite doesn't run on the server OS -- that is crucial.

Thanks for the help!

Shahid Haque-Hausrath
Border Crossing Law Firm, P.C.
312 N. Ewing Street, 2nd Floor
Helena, Montana 59601
(406) 594-2004
(888) 594-2179 (Fax)
Shahid@bordercrossinglaw.com
http://www.bordercrossinglaw.com

 

[bradleys83]

Only my 2 cents, but, the solution you have at the moment, for 2 users, is probably the most effective (in terms of cost and added time for admin) you are going to get

There's always things like GoogleApps, Joyent Connector and the like out there in the cloud if MobileMe isn't working as you'd like. The 'cloud' was pretty much designed for people in just your circumstance, as a cost effective tool that will get out of your way and let you get on with what you do best.

That being said, you could quite easily use Server on your machine without the need for your other users to be running the server version. And the likes of Daylite will run happily on OS X server as well.

 

[dyn]

That vaguely thing called "the cloud" also is the biggest security and privacy risk you can ever expose yourself to. This will bring legal risks as well. That "cloud" thing is something you want to do yourself (host it yourself) or have it done by companies/people you trust. Either way, you definitely want some control over it. That itself is a very good reason to get OS X Server.

There are also some downsides to running OS X Server yourself. You need to make sure your internetconnection is fast and stable enough to serve things like mail, calendar server, remote disk and all those other remote services you want to run. You'll also have to think about the problems you'll be having when the machine breaks. All those things are done for you by the service provider (e.g. Apple for MobileMe). It might be a good idea to get a company do some IT work for you, maybe let them give you some advice on the setup.

I have to agree with bradleys83: what you have right now works and is most likely also the cheapest option you could get in terms of cost and time needed for IT.