You have a lot of data! How can you keep your member and client information secure? What legal rules does you nonprofit need to follow when it comes to data hosting? What tools and apps won't get your in trouble? We have four experts who will answer all your questions. * Alejandra Brown: Introduction to privacy and overview of privacy and data residency rules that apply to BC nonprofits. * Mack Hardy: Five practical things you can do to secure your online self. Policies, 2FA, password managers, and more. * Damien Norris: A suite of curated tools that organizations can use to locally/securely replace the US owned cloud services in their lives. * Kris Constable: IDVPN: a VPN for complying with justistional regulations.

1. Hosted Open Source Apps
Replace US-owned Cloud Services with
free alternatives hosted locally in Canada
Damien Norris
CanTrust Hosting Co-operative

2. Who we are: CanTrust Hosting Co-op
• We are a local worker co-operative, formed in 2009. We provide managed
Canadian hosting for Drupal and Wordpress websites. We host the websites for
several hundred non-profits, co-ops, charities, educators, journalists, political
parties and First Nations.
• We now offer curated open source apps, for organizations that wish to get off
the US-owned cloud. We install and host the apps, manage security updates and
upgrades, and provide tier 2 support.
• All of our hosting infrastructure is on servers we own, hosted in Canada at
Canadian owned colocation facilities. We have three colo locations here in
Vancouver and one in Toronto.
• We guarantee that all data remains in Canada on our equipment at all times
(including backups).

3. What exactly is Open Source?
• Open Source is software source code developed in public, by group collaboration over
the Internet.
• Often hundreds of volunteers will work together on a single project and then release it
for free. It’s human collaboration and democracy at its finest!
• Most open source projects are run using the Linux operating system, but will also work
easily on a Mac (handy for testing stuff out first).
• Testing these tools is easier than ever. Linux is in Windows Store. Homebrew for Mac
lets you run thousands of Open Source programs easily. Docker allows you to instantly
download and test out thousands more.
• For production, you need to host your tools on a Linux server which you maintain
yourself (if you know how), or one that is maintained for you (a.k.a. “managed” hosting)

4. Why Open Source
• Data Security: Public nature of the source code means improved Security
standards. There are many eyes on the source code at all times and
changes are vetted by multiple people.
• Data Privacy: You can download it and host it yourself in Canada on your
own equipment - meeting compliance and privacy requirements.
• ROI – your cost is to run and maintain a single server is much lower than
paying per-user, per-program, per-month (especially for organizations with
more than a few users).
• Open Source is free to use(*), making it an excellent choice for non-profits.

5. (*) That’s Free as in “Free Kitten”!
(Kitty is looking at you like that because she desperately needs a security update!)
It is essential that you keep your systems and software up to date to maintain security and
not get hacked. If you don’t tinker with Linux for fun, you need a managed service.

6. Curated Open Source
• That’s where CanTrust (or another managed provider) comes in. Many of these open source apps
already have sponsor companies providing managed hosting. Unfortunately it's usually hosed on
Amazon..
• CanTrust's curated open source is an alternative to those, allowing you to host in Canada and be
compliant.
• We have selected and tested alternatives to the major cloud apps for getting your business done.
WE chose ones thatwe can maintain and keep running for many years.
• These apps are installed on a customer’s Virtual Private Server (VPS). One VPS per custoemr can
run all the apps shown here at once, plus host websites, all for a single low monthly price. There is
no per-user pricing.
• So without further ado, here is a whirlwind tour of some of our favourites that we use every day:

7. Riot + Matrix/Synapse (Slack replacement)
• Slack is replaced by the
“Riot” chat program, hooked
up to the “Matrix/Synapse”
chat server.
• Riot does everything slack
does, minus the threading!
• No per-user cost, no limit on
number of messages or
number of users.
• Awesome chat clients for
your phone, notifications
etc.

8. NextCloud (Dropbox + so much more!)
• Nextcloud started as “Owncloud” and it
was just a replacement for Dropbox…
• It provides a cloud drive folder that syncs
between your devices, just like Dropbox.
• Then it forked to become NextCloud and
it really started to take off!
• Nextcloud App Store adds hundreds of
different apps to Nextcloud in your
browser, to add onto the core cloud drive
functionality…

9. NextCloud Apps: OnlyOffice & Collabra
• Full G-Suite replacements such as
Collabra (OpenOffice based) or
ONLYOffice (free up to 20 users,
MS Office Based) allow NextCloud
to replace even the fanciest G-
Suite features!
• Collaborate real-time on
documents with multiple users,
with the backend files stored in
your Nextcloud

10. Nextcloud Apps: Doodle
• Replace common cloud
apps that collect personally
identifiable info with
Nextcloud App alternatives.
• Hundreds of apps in the
Nextcloud App Store.
• This example is an app to
replace the “Doodle”
meeting planner.

11. Nextcloud App KeeWeb (replaces 1Password)
• Use nextcloud-stored Keepass
XC database files from the
web Nextcloud interface.
• Or, open them with the
Keepass XC app in your local
synced Nextcloud folder.
• No more storing your
password in a giant cloud
basket in the US!

12. Open Project (replaces JIRA, Asana, etc)
• Very functional and easy to
use project management
system.
• Supports Agile or Waterfall
style of project management.
• Manage projects, products, or
support.

13. Kanboard (kanboard like Wrike, Trello etc.)
• Super simple PHP app that does one thing and does it well: Kanboard

14. Rainloop (replaces Gmail)
• OK it’s not really Gmail but
it’s as close are you’re going
to get without sacrificing your
privacy.
• Email is a tough one to sel-
host because Google and
Microsoft will spam flag your
messages more than if you
host with them.

15. Matomo (replaces Google Analytics)
• Matomo (formerly called
“PiWiK”) provides self-hosted
web stats comparable to the
Google tools.
• Track website visitors with
Javascript tracking
• Tag Manager capabilities
(replace GTM)

16. GitLab (replaces GitHub)
• GitLab has in fact surpassed
GitHub in many ways now,
after a massive spike in
user adoption when
Microsoft bought GitHub.
• GitLab has extensive
support for web-based
collaboration as well as
integration with CI/CD
tools.

17. The list goes on…….
• And on.. and on…. and on! But we only have 20 minutes!
• Beyond those shown here, we are constantly adding new apps to the
curated selection, as customers request them and we evaluate them.
(e.g. OpenProject – thanks Kris!)
• If you are interested in how these or other open source apps can
work for your organization? Drop us a line at
info@cantrusthosting.coop !