I am wonder what best practice is for where the primary holder of contacts and calendar data should be… is it better to have the e-mail provider hold those data and connect to nextCloud via CardDAV and CalDav, or the other way around?
If all goes well, users would not have to interact much with the e-mail provider, but there are some settings and filters they might have to use and I suppose good to have a fully functional webmail incase there is a problem with Nextcloud, but at the same time, that seems like NextCloud would be doing extra work of syncing all the time with the e-mail provider.
Centralizing Data with Nextcloud
The main idea of Nextcloud is to keep all your data in one place and avoid relying on a third party. This means that Nextcloud should be the “primary” location for managing contacts and calendars. If you rely solely on your email provider’s infrastructure, you’re giving up some control over your own data.
Backup and Export
Nextcloud allows you to easily export contacts and calendars at any time, providing you with convenient backup options. You can also rely on your mobile device—synchronized via CardDAV and CalDAV—to serve as another form of backup.
Importance of a Functional Webmail
It’s still important to maintain a fully functional webmail interface from your email provider. This ensures that you can handle any unexpected issues, conduct tests, or configure certain features and filters directly within the email provider’s environment.
Usage in Daily Work
In day-to-day activities, you’ll likely be working in Nextcloud most of the time—whether it’s handling documents, calendars, or contacts. You can configure filters or advanced settings within Nextcloud, assuming your provider and the relevant plugins support it.
Ownership and Control
Overall, relying primarily on Nextcloud is a great practice. You maintain ownership and control over your data, you have straightforward backup and synchronization options, and if privacy and security are priorities, hosting your own Nextcloud instance puts you in charge of how and where your data is stored.
Super clear and sound logic- thanks @vawaver… so the only downside really is that when a user goes into webmail, lets say to adjust a filter or something, they can send and see sent e-mail there, but not their contacts, so it might be kinda hard to use… but I agree that would be a secondary usage… thanks so much!