Self-Hosting

Your homelab runs your GitLab, your passwords, your photos, your home automation. What happens when the disk fails? If you can’t answer that question confidently, you don’t have backups. You have hope. The 3-2-1 rule has been around for decades because it works. Three copies, two different media, one offsite. Here’s how to actually implement it. The 3-2-1 Rule Explained flowchart TD subgraph rule["3-2-1 Backup Rule"] Data["Original Data"] subgraph three["3 Copies"] C1["Copy 1<br/>(Original)"] C2["Copy 2<br/>(Local Backup)"] C3["Copy 3<br/>(Offsite)"] end subgraph two["2 Media Types"] M1["NVMe/SSD"] M2["HDD/NAS"] end subgraph one["1 Offsite"] Off["Cloud/Remote"] end end Data --> C1 Data --> C2 Data --> C3 C1 --> M1 C2 --> M2 C3 --> Off Why Three Copies? Copy 1: Your live data (original) Copy 2: Local backup (fast restore) Copy 3: Offsite backup (disaster recovery) One copy is not a backup. Two copies can both fail in the same disaster (fire, flood, ransomware). Three copies with separation gives you real resilience. ...

You don’t need a cloud provider to run Kubernetes. You don’t need expensive servers. You need three mini-PCs and an afternoon. This is how I built my homelab cluster — the same cluster that runs my GitLab, monitoring, home automation, and everything else I refuse to trust to someone else’s computer. Why K3s? K3s is Kubernetes, simplified: Single binary — ~70MB, includes everything Low resource — Runs on Raspberry Pi, runs great on mini-PCs Production ready — Same API, same workloads, less overhead Batteries included — Built-in ingress, load balancer, storage It’s not “Kubernetes lite.” It’s Kubernetes without the enterprise cruft. ...

In my previous post about self-hosting for everyone, I painted a vision of managed self-hosting where anyone can own their data. But there’s an uncomfortable truth I glossed over: hardware costs money, and the economics are fundamentally different for businesses versus individuals. Let’s talk about the elephant in the server room. The Financial Reality When a business buys a €1,000 server, here’s what actually happens: Factor Business Individual VAT Deductible (€0 net) €210 lost Corporate tax benefit ~25% deduction (€197) None Write-off 5 years depreciation Just an expense Cash flow Business expense After-tax income Net cost ~€593 €1,000 A business effectively pays 40% less for the same hardware. But it gets worse. ...

What if you could have complete control over your email, your photos, your documents, your everything — without needing to understand Linux, Kubernetes, or networking? What if self-hosting was as easy as paying a monthly subscription, but instead of feeding your data to Big Tech, you actually owned it? This is the future I’m building towards. The Problem: We’ve Lost Control Every day, billions of people hand over their most intimate data to companies whose business model depends on exploiting it. Your emails, your photos, your location history, your browsing habits — all stored on servers you don’t control, governed by terms of service you didn’t read, in jurisdictions that may not protect your rights. ...