Most people keep their photos, files, passwords and calendar with a handful of big tech companies. I don’t. I run my own servers, and they host dozens of services you’d normally rent: file storage, a password manager, calendar and contacts, and a lot more.

That may sound like a hobby that got out of hand. Partly, it is. But there’s a clear reason behind it, and a few lessons that apply even if you never want to touch a server.

Why I do it

I want to know where my data is. With a big service you usually don’t know exactly, and you have little say in what happens to it. An American company also falls under American law, even when the server is in Europe. I explain that further in how to become less dependent on big tech.

I don’t want to be locked in. When a service raises its price, drops a feature or blocks your account, there’s little you can do. With open-source software on my own servers, I can always move. The software and the data are mine.

I want to understand how it works. That’s how I started: as a kid I rooted my phone to see how it worked. Running everything myself teaches me how it fits together, and where it breaks. That comes back in everything I build for others.

What it costs

To be fair: it isn’t free, even when the software is.

  • Time. Updates, monitoring, and now and then something that breaks. I’m my own helpdesk.
  • Care. The servers are set up redundantly: if one fails, the others take over, and everything is monitored automatically. I did have to build and test that myself first.
  • Responsibility. When something goes wrong, there’s nobody else. That’s why I make backups, and test that they restore. A backup that’s never been restored is hope, not a plan.

For me that’s worth it, because I enjoy it and learn from it every day. For most people and businesses, it isn’t.

What you can take from it without a server

You don’t need a server rack at home to get more control. The ideas behind it work just as well with services you rent:

  • Know where your most important data is. Write down which services you use for mail, files and passwords, and which company runs them.
  • Choose a European or open-source service where you can. Many good alternatives are just as easy as the well-known names.
  • Make sure you can move. Can you export your data in a common format? Then you’re not locked in.
  • Keep backups that aren’t with the same provider. And check now and then that you can actually restore them.

For me, self-hosting is where that thinking ends up, not where it starts. Above all, it shows you can have modern convenience without giving your data away. How far you take it is up to you.

Want to know where your business stands right now? That’s what the IT scan is for.