Self-hosted collaboration suite: your tools, your data, your server
Files, document editing, team chat, wiki: deploy your collaboration suite on a Kimsufi server. You stay in control of your data and your costs, with no monthly subscription and no dependence on a public cloud.
Why choose a self-hosted collaboration suite?
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 have made collaboration simple, but at a price: a per-user subscription, data entrusted to a public cloud provider, sometimes subject to laws outside Europe, and terms you don't control. For a business, a nonprofit or a public body, self-hosting offers a different approach, built around privacy and digital sovereignty.
A self-hosted collaboration suite lets you run your everyday services on your own server: file storage and sharing, editing of documents, spreadsheets and presentations, calendars, instant messaging, video conferencing, wiki. This machine becomes your private cloud, and you decide:
- where your data lives: hosted in the datacenter and country of your choice, which makes GDPR compliance easier;
- who can access it: accounts, groups, permissions management and single sign-on, under your control alone;
- how much you pay: open source software is free, and your hosting cost stays stable as your team grows;
- how the platform evolves: versions, modules, customization.
In return, self-hosting requires system administration skills. The Kimsufi server is unmanaged: we provide the machine, the network and the infrastructure; you install and maintain your applications.
Why choose a Kimsufi dedicated server for your collaboration suite?
Control over your data
Unshared resources, full root access and ISO 27001 certified datacenters: your documents and conversations stay on a machine reserved for your organization.
Predictable budget
One machine for all your tools: no per-user billing, and unmetered traffic is included.
Freedom to install
Install the Linux distribution of your choice in one click, or Proxmox to isolate each service in its own VM: you build your own platform.
Protected availability
Anti-DDoS protection is included with every offer, and our technical team is available 24/7 for the infrastructure.
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Nextcloud, OnlyOffice, Collabora, Mattermost: the building blocks of an open source collaboration suite
No single solution does it all. A collaboration suite usually combines a few well-integrated open source applications that you install yourself:
- Nextcloud: the foundation. File sync and sharing across desktop and mobile, calendars, contacts, video calls and chat rooms with Nextcloud Talk, task boards and many add-on apps.
- OnlyOffice Docs or Collabora Online: collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets and presentations, right inside Nextcloud. OnlyOffice focuses on compatibility with Microsoft Office formats; Collabora, based on LibreOffice, favors open formats.
- Mattermost or Rocket.Chat: team chat, an alternative to Slack or Teams, with channels, direct messages and integrations.
- A wiki such as BookStack or XWiki for your company's internal documentation, and GitLab for your technical teams' code and project management.
Nextcloud already covers most of the platform's features; add the other building blocks as needed, connected through single sign-on (Keycloak or LDAP).
How to choose your server for a collaboration suite?
The resources you need depend on the number of users, the services you install and the volume of data:
- Processor: online editing, video conferencing and indexing all rely on the CPU; to use them with several people at once, plan for multiple cores.
- Memory: every database, every Redis cache and every service consumes RAM; if you isolate your services in VMs or containers, add up their requirements.
- Storage: an SSD or NVMe drive keeps the interface and databases responsive; high-capacity HDDs, in RAID if you wish, hold your data and local backups.
- Network: bandwidth ranges from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps depending on the model, with unmetered traffic, which is useful for file sync and video calls.
- Location: France, Germany, United Kingdom, Poland, Canada, India, Singapore or Australia. Hosting in France or Europe simplifies GDPR compliance.
For a small team, the KS range is an affordable starting point. For a company that combines file sync, online editing, chat and wiki, the SYS and RISE ranges offer more memory and power.
What does self-hosting a collaboration suite mean?
Self-hosting a collaboration suite means installing your collaboration tools (documents, calendars, chat, wiki) yourself on a server you control, instead of renting them as SaaS in the public cloud. You stay in charge of the data, the configuration and the costs, and you handle the administration.
Which open source solution should you choose for file sharing?
Nextcloud is one of the most widely used solutions for this purpose, as a self-hosted service. Its security mostly depends on you: updates, two-factor authentication, encrypted connections and external backups.
How do you ensure GDPR compliance for a self-hosted collaboration suite?
Choose where your data is located, limit access, encrypt both connections and data copies, and keep your record of processing activities. Self-hosting makes compliance easier, but does not replace it.
How much does self-hosting cost compared to a SaaS offer?
A SaaS, hosted in a public cloud, charges for every seat, every month. With self-hosting, open source software is free: you pay for a fixed-price server and for administration time. The more your team grows, the more the difference works in your favor, as long as the resources are sufficient.
How do you ensure high availability and backups for your collaboration suite?
Automate encrypted backups to an external location and test restoring them. An additional option for high availability: replicate your services on a second server, ideally in another location.
Is the Kimsufi server managed?
No. You install and maintain your services; our technical team, available 24/7, takes care of the hardware and infrastructure.