[The Computer Kid] "Getting Started with ownCloud" Book Review

[Conrad Sykes]

Owncloud is a powerful opensource alternative to services such as Dropbox and Google Drive. It is full of features, options, and plugins. It can be installed on Windows or Linux servers and configured to run over a home lan or via the internet. While the flexibility and configurability offered by ownCloud is great, it can also seem a bit daunting. Fortunately I recently had the pleasure of reading “Getting Started with ownCloud” which is a book that does a good job of tackling the many ways to install and configure OwnCloud in an easy to follow format. It also has step by step instructions for both windows (using IIS) and Linux servers (using a LAMP stack).

While I had previously setup ownCloud a couple times before; after reading this book I realized that I had some major security holes that needing fixing. The book makes a good argument as to why ownCloud version 4 has big security flaws and everyone should upgrade to version 5. Also in chapter four of the book, the author goes into depth on how properly secure your owncloud installation. If you haven't installed owncloud yet and are considering reading this book I would recommend reading chapter 1 and then skipping to chapter 4 before you begin the installation since these two chapters are the most important chapters regarding installation and security.

While novice users will find the book easy to follow, there is also plenty for more advanced gurus. If you are a sysadmin and are deploying owncloud for employees at your company several chapters in this book will be of interest, especially the portions that talk about managing user accounts and load balancing to maximize speed and efficiency. All in all, I think this book has something for everyone. It's easy to follow and is a good compendium of the different options and ways to configure own cloud. To read some sample chapters from the book, and to learn more, head over to http://www.packtpub.com/getting-started-with-owncloud/book. I hope you will find this book as useful as I have.

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Posted By Conrad Sykes to The Computer Kid at 8/30/2013 12:16:00 PM