Hi All
Due to an impending redundancy issue I have decided to try and turn into an
opportunity to do something for myself. I have got to the point in my planning
where I need to decide upon the IT infrastructure that I going to deploy.
I would like to run all of the admin/business functions using Linux and
wondered
if anyone on the list is able to offer advice on the best set-up?
The intention is to have an internal domain which is completely air-gapped from
the outside world so I will need a PDC/BDC arrangement to handle that. I will
need to have a certain amount of Windows boxes (unavoidable in my line of work)
that can access the domain as well as the admin/business function boxes that
will all run Linux. I anticipate needing to run some sort of CRM server from
the
domain controller as well as the usual databases, file shares etc. I will
outsource web and email to a provider to eliminate the overhead of maintaining
the up time.
Given that I will be (hopefully) busy getting the business up and running I do
not envisage having a lot of time to dedicate to keeping the network
maintained,
therefore I was considering going with one of the enterprise distributions (Red
Hat or SLED) for both server and workstation needs as the support costs are not
that horrendous. Is this a good move or is it just throwing money away? Would I
be better off going with something free (as in beer) such as Ubuntu even though
my time overhead may be greater in the short term?
Other questions are:
Given that the domain will be air-gapped from the outside world, what is the
best update route to take to keep the servers, Linux and Windows boxes patched
and up to date (I will have a dirty net connected to the internet .
What business productivity tools can people recommend:
Open Office - obvious choice
GnuCash - for accounts - is there anything better
CRM/ERP - I am thinking "openerp" or "vtiger" - does anyone have any experience
of these systems
Are there other business tools available under Linux that any of you have found
useful?
Any thoughts/guidance would be appreciated.
Stu
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