DLRG’s innovative use of Nextcloud Hub for managing the world’s largest water rescue network

Post date

July 25, 2024

About The German Life Saving Association

The German Life Saving Association, DLRG is the world’s largest voluntary organization for water rescue with over 600,000 members. Since its founding in 1913, the DLRG has made it its mission to prevent people from drowning. The main tasks of the organization include swimming and lifesaving training, raising awareness about dangers in and around bodies of water, as well as water rescue services.

In approximately 2,000 clubs, volunteers contribute over eight million hours of voluntary work each year for the people of Germany. More than 49,000 members annually ensure the safety of bathers and water sports enthusiasts at around 2,700 bodies of water.

Collaboration across boundaries with Nextcloud

DLRG desired a central location to store documents and files that could be easily accessed anytime, anywhere and by anyone with permissions. Their goal to set up file exchange across organizational boundaries was met with Nextcloud, where no IT intermediary has to be involved, streamlining efficiency and productivity.

For these reasons and more Nextcloud Enterprise was the ideal solution:

Open source software that they could operate and integrate into their own infrastructure
Have a central location accessible from anywhere
Data protection-compliant file storage
Ability to exchange files across organizational boundaries (no intermediary user) with group folders
Guaranteed security with regular updates
Customization with various add-ons
Compliance with GDPR
Nextcloud Groupware: Calendar
Nextcloud Forms
Work on mobile devices
Strong community base
Long-term, lifelong solution

Implementing Nextcloud Hub

DLRG’s Nextcloud instance is directly on their own servers, making it extremely date secure. It is operated on virtual Linux machines and delivered via several virtual web servers. Up to 20,000 users have access to one or more folders!

A solution that fits user needs

Implementing the Nextcloud Content Collaboration Platform was the key to give users the much needed flexibility and autonomy in their work.

“A joint collaboration platform enables members to achieve the core objectives of the association, for example by developing new training concepts for water rescue or exchanging data in the context of disaster control operations.”

Dr. Dirk Bissinger, Vice President of Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft e.V

Members say they love the simplicity of central file management in Nextcloud Files and easy access and sharing with Group Folders. In addition, being able to collaborate on a shared document in Nextcloud Office, even from their mobile phone, is extremely valued. Nextcloud Calendar is also used widely for planning and scheduling.

Lifelong data security

Since the introduction of Nextcloud at DLRG, data protection has significantly improved. As previously files were stored decentrally with various commercial providers, today members can store their data on the association’s own servers in compliance with the GDPR.

With the ability to perform regular software updates, DLRG can rely on Nextcloud and can guarantee security for its users and the people outside their organization.

“We chose Nextcloud because we were looking for an open source software that is individually expandable and has a large community that enables further developments.”

Dr. Dirk Bissinger, Vice President of Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft e.V

One aspect they are currently working on updating is the expansion of storage capacity and in the near future, the further development of automations is planned.

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