Remote Access - School Board Members

[SimonInOz]

Hi,

 

I have been asked to set, or at least propose some options for board member access. My first thought was, accounts for all members, then a secure area on the server, VPN access then a drive mapping to that area.

 

We also have O365 and Onedrive, but there would need to be some area which is generally accessible, plus a secure area for each member. I can do the first easily, but are there other options that people use for this purpose? Brain not operating well today, so any assist would be appreciated.

 

BTW, we use Sonicwall VPN, and this is installed through the Microsoft store, would this still work for non domain computers, as all of their computers would be non-domain.

 

cheers

 

Simon

Edited April 27, 2021 by SimonInOz

[mavhc]

Onedrive would be secure per user, and then Sharepoint for shared files.

[FN-GM]

I would not be having personal devices connecting via VPN and mapping network drive. If these unmanaged insecure devices get ransomeware you're going to have a headache. In addition if they don't have the right apps installed they won't be able to open the files.

 

I would upload the documents you need to a cloud solution. For example OneDrive or Sharepoint. They can view the files in the browser. In addition they can use other devices such as iPads etc.

[kennysarmy]

FoldR?

[DavR]

I can't comment on it, as I don't have access to it, but our lot use a tool called Governor Hub. This is an online solution that has file store, calendars, tools, etc that allows them to collaborate whilst, conveniently, being none of my problem(!). They seem to like it, plus I give them school domain email addresses.

 

If I was starting from scratch, I would do Office 365 and give them a shared area on Sharepoint. That would allow them to share with SLT and other school staff if required. Can't see why you'd need to bring them onto your on-prem solution?

[mavhc]

Then you can use sharepoint flow to have people approve documents etc

[TechMonkey]

We created a Sharepoint Portal for governors and documents all go on there. They are then told when something that needs their attention is uploaded and they log in. The only issue we have found is when they use M365 for either their own work or another organisation, there is often a conflict and it tries accessing our portal with their other login. I knew getting them to log out of their other instance would lead to being told we had broken their computer so we showed them how to use incognito/inprivate.

[SimonInOz]

Thanks, so you create them as normal AD users, how is the shared Sharepoint area created, I am not a Sharepoint guru unfortunately.

[mavhc]

Go to your school sharepoint site, create a site, assign permissions to it

[DavR]

Also, assuming your Sharepoint is in Office 365, you would be creating them logins in M365 rather than on prem AD users.

[jmak]

I used hybrid Azure AD and created the users in on premises AD. I put the governors in their own OU and allocated appropriate permissions (no access to network storage, but I did allow the clerk to print).

 

I created a Team* in O365 in the hope that they might use some of the other facilities which also created a SharePoint online library automatically. When they go to the Files section in Teams, there is a button "Open in SharePoint".

 

*Actually I created 4; one for all governors and one for each of the subcommittees.

[Davit2005]

Hi,

 

I have been asked to set, or at least propose some options for board member access. My first thought was, accounts for all members, then a secure area on the server, VPN access then a drive mapping to that area.

 

We also have O365 and Onedrive, but there would need to be some area which is generally accessible, plus a secure area for each member. I can do the first easily, but are there other options that people use for this purpose? Brain not operating well today, so any assist would be appreciated.

 

BTW, we use Sonicwall VPN, and this is installed through the Microsoft store, would this still work for non domain computers, as all of their computers would be non-domain.

 

cheers

 

Simon

 

The question to ask is what they need the remote access for and work around that, OneDrive and sharepoint would be obvious contenders and give easy possibility of MFA etc.