User:GavriilaDmitriev/sandbox/Self-hosting (web services)

Self-hosting is the practice of running and maintaining a website or web service in an environment fully or partially under their own control. This practice is often considered due to negative experiences with existing services in regard to privacy concerns, strife for freedom or to have full control over software and it's functions. While self-hosting of propriety software is possible, it is associated with additional costs and the danger of ceased offering of it's services.

Core topics of this article
Control over data (privacy) Control over functionality Preference of FOSS Following legal reasons like privacy shield and GDPR Give example of how a service is run self hosted compared with the SaaS option based on Bitwarden and Confluence
 * Run old versions
 * cherry pick updates
 * Add own features / customize
 * Save of cost

Privacy
Privacy concerns are rising since it becomes harder to control information in the age of mass-surveillance, personalized advertising and the usage social media. Default settings in websites and apps are often in an opt-out method and often not changed by the average user. Experiences made from the european General Data Protection Regulation shows that laws are stretched even over its legal limits. Avoiding the usage of those services and using often less convenient alternatives are avoiding those issues.

Escape from Big Tech
Big tech in the internet are faced with an increasing mistrust due to omni-present tracking, personalized advertising, censorship and the constant danger to loose access over user accounts due to overblocking. Many of their services provided are either in a monopolistic or oligopolistic position as a result of extensive capital needs and networking effects. With services from small scale companies or private people it is possible to create alternatives which aren't depending of economies of scale or networking effect.

Security
Security is in IT is hard to implement correctly and costly. Big organizations, corporations and governmental bodies are attractive targets to hackers alike due to the big amount of data available. Also the possibility to extort those entities is a well known problem. While some entities invest considerable amounts of money into securing their systems it is not possible for the customer to know what actually is happening in their systems. Although self-hosting offers a smaller target for hackers, they are still exposed to common and low-effort access methods by cause of unsecured systems or weak passwords.

Types of hosting
Following the usual hosting types considered in self-hosting. The excluded options are usually either too complex like clustered systems or financially not feasible like colocation or negates the benefits as cloud computing.

Home server
This approach offers the best control over the hardware and protection against unauthorized physical access. Downsides can be the price of purchase of necessary hardware and insufficient internet connection connectability at the home location.

Bare-metal server
Bare-metal server are usually considered a whole server filling an 19-inch rack. There is no physical access provided to the machine but the user has full control over the software and doesn't share the hardware with any other customers. This is the traditional professional way of web hosting.

Virtual private server (VPS)
A virtual private server is a virtual machine on shared hardware provided by an internet hosting service. The user has no access to it's hardware and often has to share the internet connection with other users on the same hardware. Compared to the other options this is the cheapest option.

Connectability

 * Offline access only
 * Access via Network
 * Public accessible via Internet

Trend/Development

 * Corporations shift more to Cloud
 * More hobby enthusiasts building their own infrastructure

Risks and Challenges
Due to updating
 * Availability/SLAs
 * Intensive technical knowledge required
 * Time intensive