title: Remote Working with Open Source 
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pub_date: 2020-03-15
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author: ungleich
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twitter_handle: ungleich
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_hidden: no
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_discoverable: no
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abstract:
Remote working infrastructure at team ungleich
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body:

## Working at the time of Covid19

Hey everyone who works remotely now: our team has been doing it since 2013 and now we are distributed in 5 time zones. Here is how we do it: check the digital infrastructure our team is using for our daily business.

## How we decide what to use

Disclaimer: we’re an open-source, sustainability focused IT company. So we decide which tools to use by these criteria.

1. open source
2. sustainablility
3. state of the art
4. usability for people with all backgrounds

## 1. Chat: Zero carbon chat - Mattermost, Matrix

You need a chat system when working remotely, more than anything. We have two chat systems, [Mattermost](https://ungleich.ch/u/products/zero-carbon-chat/) and [Matrix.](https://ungleich.ch/u/products/hosted-matrix-chat/)
Mattermost offers an extremely easy and smooth team communication for people with all kinds of backgrounds. Most of our team talk happens on this platform. 

![](/u/image/zerocarbon-chat-screen.jpg)

[Zero Carbon Matrix](https://ungleich.ch/u/products/hosted-matrix-chat/), on the other hand, offers end-to-end encryption and federation, which makes it very attractive for people with high sensitivity for privacy and security. It also allows us to be more open.

## 2. Cloud storage - Nextcloud

We are using hosted [Nextcloud](https://ungleich.ch/u/products/zero-carbon-cloud) for data storage and sharing. It supports cloud storage, file sharing between teams and real-time collaboration for document editing. It's pretty easy and we like to save data in Switzerland and not somewhere we don't trust the authorities. 

![](/u/image/pizol.jpg)

## 3. Project management - Redmine

[Redmine](https://ungleich.ch/u/products/project-management/) is our longest standing project management tool since the beginning of our company. It supports calendar, ticket creating, issue tracking, wiki, roadmap and more. 

![](/u/image/open-infrastructure.jpg)

Redmine is just very handy for managing multiple projects and subprojects, and giving access to different people can be done on a role basis. Our whole [data center infrastructure](https://redmine.ungleich.ch/projects/open-infrastructure) is actually in redmine & we open it for public, so you can take a look to get an impression. 

![](/u/image/open-infrastructure-overview.jpg)

## 4. Code hosting - Gitlab

We used GitHub before, but we decided to move to our own Gitlab in 2018 due to GitHub's lack of #IPv6 support and some other issues. It turned out to be a very good idea, and we're hosting Gitlab for our customers too.

## A decision with sustainability goes a long way

So that’s what we use at our company. And we run it all on our servers with renewable energy. Many of you who are new to remote working might have to make decisions in a hurry, but try to remember that decisions with sustainability in mind saves a lot of pain in the long run, and also saves our environment.

![](/u/image/decarbonize-penguin.jpg)

## Questions?

 If you have some questions on the above stack, our remote-working team is around to give you answers. ;) Stay healthy, and happy remote working to you all!

![](/u/image/zerocarbon_no.jpg)