Mac-in-the-Cloud options

[ssvt]

I'm looking to have a MacOS instance in the cloud - on a service like MacStadium or AWS for a client who wants to access his files.

The options are to set up a VPN so he and his four employees who travel all over the U.S. can access their files or to store all their stuff in the cloud. They must be able to open, edit and save files - not just move them back and forth.

Any thoughts on what would be the best way to go? They do not want anything to do with Azure or Windows.

So, VPN to phone home as they do now, establish a virtual instance of MacOS on something like MacStadium or similar, or find a host that has bare metal Mac minis? Suggestions of providers are most welcome! These guys would be accessing remotely at locations that have good solid gig fiber connections.

Thank you.

 

[sevoneone]

Can you explain the use case a little more? What type of files do they need to directly edit and is there a specific reason they need to directly edit/stream the files vs. bring a copy down and upload a new version when complete? There is a reason services like Google Drive, Dropbox, Sharepoint etc are so prolific and that is because regular desktop file sharing protocols were never built to function over the Internet. It can work if you have a solid route between the two points and latency under 50ms. Just remember, no matter how good the connection is on each end, you don't have any control over the quality and quantity of the networks on the path between those two points.

I say this from experience because I have a monster like this currently deployed that was necessitated out of the pandemic/WFH, a very limited budget and a high demand workflow for about 8 people. Mostly Indesign files, graphics and photos. We'll just say mostly came down to some aggressive change resistance and in the end we were left with figuring out SMB file sharing over WAN. We were lucky and all the stars aligned and we were able to make this work well enough that we still use it in a less critical capacity.

The key components for us was that we already had a fast symmetrical gigabit fiber connection at our corporate office (as you mentioned), and we replaced L2TP and OpenVPN with ZeroTier: https://www.zerotier.com/. ZeroTier really simplifies things on the user end while affording a lot of control on the admin side. Any computer (physical or cloud) joined to the same ZeroTier network basically behave as if they are on the same LAN, simplifying a lot.

Your milage may vary greatly of course.

An option worth mentioning (again not knowing use case and size of files, so may be totally invalid) is Apple's new Business Essentials program has options for managed iCloud storage up to 2TB per user. If the driving force is to have a simple/Mac native experience of open folder and double click to open a document, an iCloud shared folder might be a good option. There would be a short delay while a copy of the file syncs down, but then it just behaves like a file on a native disk/share. You can be on the best connection in the world and have SMB over WAN randomly leave your staring a beachball for 60 seconds 2 or 3 times just browsing folders for the file you want. Which is going to be a worse experience than the few seconds it takes to iCloud to sync a 25MB PDF. Just something to consider.

 

[ssvt]

Thank you for your very thoughtful reply.

Your use case sounds similar to mine. I had seen Zerotier and will consider that as it seems to resolve the greatest issue - that being the end-user. One of their power users is moving to a permanent WFH situation in another state.

For the most part, the remote users would be accessing Word and Excel documents with one power user working extensively with Indesign and pdf files. They have been somewhat spoiled since they've moved their database and accounting functions to cloud-based services and they want that ease-of-access.

My thinking in cloud access is they would reduce the single point of failure from relying on their home network when they are away so much of the time.

 

[satcomer]

When I travel I just used the web version on iCloud to get to backup files I saved earlier! To me this was the safest way!

 

[sevoneone]

Thank you for your very thoughtful reply.

Your use case sounds similar to mine. I had seen Zerotier and will consider that as it seems to resolve the greatest issue - that being the end-user. One of their power users is moving to a permanent WFH situation in another state.

Yeah I've been pretty happy with the performance and reliability. We also use Jumpcloud for MDM and I have terminal scripts that I can remotely run to add/remove any managed Mac to any of the 3 ZeroTier networks we have setup now. For the marketing folks I also have scripts setup via launchd that check for connectivity and mount the network share automatically when the user logs in. 99% of any user troubleshooting is solved with a reboot that way.

My thinking in cloud access is they would reduce the single point of failure from relying on their home network when they are away so much of the time.

MacStadium is the better choice over AWS if you go this route. With AWS you will have fees for network egress. MacStadium includes unlimited bandwidth.

Best of luck!

 

[ssvt]

Thanks again! I'll be testing ZeroTier and MacStadium today.