Best way to set up a private cloud for family

Question

I wish to set up my private cloud. Is there any Apple device that will help me do so? If not, which are the devices that will be most compatible with Mac, iPhone and an iPad?
I don't have a server as yet. I am looking for an Apple device that can act as a storage for all kinds of files for every member in my family.
Will I be able to access my files from anywhere once secure my files in Mac server? If yes, can someone please explain the detailed procedure to do so?

Answer 1

In isolation, the term "Cloud" is effectively meaningless; it's largely become a marketing term designed to try to open up wallets in an effort toward the proper vacuuming of available funds.  It started out as what used to be timesharing or hosted services, or client server.  The "private" version is now typically used for devices or servers you own.  Better than these terms, you'll need to decide what services you want now, and what services you might grow into — and whether you want to provide gear for the immediate needs, or gear that's more capable and that you can grow into.  Storage is obvious.  Probably VPN services.  Web (and possibly WebDAV) with a Wiki or a content management system, and potentially your own mail server and calendar (CalDAV) server.  Once you have sorted out what you want to do and what you want to grow into (and implicitly also the budget involved here), then we'll have a better idea of what sort of "cloud" you need.
If you want to share storage via CIFS/SMB or AFP, then OS X (client) can do that now.  No need for OS X Server, or some other server.  For AFP, Time Capsule can provide local storage.  Further along, OS X Server, which can deal with sharing storage, as well as DNS and distributed authentication.  (Recent versions of OS X Server have had some issues with the VPN server, but Apple has released some patches that have supposedly addressed that.)
Or you can use Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices from various vendors.   This would be similar to the Time Capsule, though many of the available devices are more capable and more capacious.  Synology makes some of the higher-end gear in the home range, and there are many other vendors of NAS devices.
When working with multiple users where privacy is a concern, the necessity for authentication and access controls can arise with traditional file shares, though these simple shares will work for smaller configurations.  In a larger system, you'll want to have the access tied into the identity of the accessor, rather than having everybody configured with passwords all over the place — those passwords don't tend to get changed or require the user to log in and change it across multiple devices, and security tends to go downhill from there.  You might or might not be small enough here to not have these requirements; where you can either have passwords on multiple devices, or can share passwords — but that's something to ponder.
Remote access requires a network connection and probably involving a VPN security — an encrypted network connection — into a gateway firewall device with an embedded VPN server, or using NAT VPN passthrough into some other local VPN server you've installed and configured, and it requires an ISP connection that allows that remote access.  For simple access and where your ISP allows in-bound VPNs, dynamic DNS (to get from name to IP address) and a VPN server in your gateway device or in some other box inside your network — with NAT VPN passthrough enabled on your gateway device — will work.  For a bigger group or when more advanced features or typical use of a small business or such, you'd typically want static IP, as you'd typically be looking to add mail services and some other features.  (This also means you'll want a reasonably fast and reliable remote network link from your ISP, obviously.)
iOS doesn't particularly do file sharing (not without add-on tools, and many apps are not set up for accessing file shares in any case), so you'll have to look at what the particular apps you're using do support.  Once you know what those support, that'll help determine what can be shared there, and how.
If you wanted to go gonzo, there are commercial and open-source cloud implementations, but that's going to involve managing a server, and the cloud software.
Dropbox and Spideroak and other such are common choices for sharing files using hosted services, and Mac Mini Colo offers OS X-based cloud capabilities if you'd prefer to use a hosted OS X system.  This if you don't want to acquire and configure and manage and maintain the gear and the network access.