commit 300b168b5861f8db3b1f2ae7ed5f6cb48928a139
parent f09278c8de48fa112ce28debe7f724ac77fbe82e
Author: pyratebeard <root@pyratebeard.net>
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2022 20:28:47 +0000
Merge branch 'self-host'
Diffstat:
1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/entry/20220110-self-host_or_self-almost.md b/entry/20220110-self-host_or_self-almost.md
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+Self-hosting is the idea that instead of using services provided by companies, you own and operate everything yourself.
+
+Reasons to do this can vary from technical curiosity to the desire for data protection.
+
+Some argue in order to be a true self-hoster you should own the physical hardware and run it at home. Others say that even using cloud providers such as Digital Ocean or Hetzner can be considered self-hosting if you are using a Virtual Private Server (VPS) and no Software as a Service (SaaS).
+
+Understandably some people take the "self" part seriously. There are others who can't afford the upfront costs or even the running costs.
+
+Do you self-host? Do you have your own physical servers serving your sites and data, or do you use a VPS to host; is the latter really self-hosting?
+
+In my opinion, you can refer to running your website or blog on a VPS as self-hosting. If you have created the VPS, chosen the OS, are the only user with root access, and installed, configured and are managing everything yourself then are you not self-hosting?
+
+Maybe I say that because it is what I do. I don't host anything public on my own infrastructure. This blog and my various other online sites are running in the cloud. I have hosted websites from my home in the past. Having moved around a lot as part of my previous job it wasn't sustainable so I migrated to running everything public to cloud services.
+
+Some people do run their own servers, and it is something I am interested in doing again now I have settled more. If you want to own the infrastructure you have to consider not only the purchasing and running costs, but the physical space required. I met somebody years ago who had a rack in their garage which they were slowly filling with blades. The hardware geek in me got quite giddy.
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+Running the few sites I have wouldn't actually have to require much infrastructure. I could probably get a way with a few Raspberry Pis for the static HTML and maybe a tower server or two for anything requiring more resources.
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+One reason I like using a cloud provider is the control over the network, specifically the floating IPs you can purchase. This is not something I could have if I hosted the hardware myself, my current ISP doesn't provide a static IP as an option. I have had an ISP in the past which would give you a static IP for a price, this was useful for things like my VPN.
+
+If you self-host on your own hardware I would love to hear about what you use, how you find maintaining everything (especially IPs potentially change at random), and even why you decided to go that route.
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+If you host in the cloud it would be interesting to hear how complex you built the infrastructure, and do you have multiple cloud providers or stick with just one?
+
+You can find ways to contact me on my [homepage](https://pyratebeard.net) if you would like to tell me your self-hosting journey.
