In previous posts, we covered the utility of running a Server Operating system over a Graphical Operating System in your home network. There are pros and cons of running this type of Operating System. In my opinion, if Server reliability is what you are looking for, running a Server OS is a must. (Ideally on a spare box and not your main system.)
Now take this powerful server utility and put it securely into the cloud, and boom. You can access the powerful server you have running, from anywhere regardless of network. If you have access to the internet, you have access to your server.
Tangent: The term “The Cloud” used to frustrate me because whenever I asked anyone for clarification on what it was, I got wishy-washy answers and I don’t actually think anyone else really understood what it was. All the term “The Cloud” refers to is a collection of virtual servers hosted by a given VPS company. These servers are under the customer’s control and the data (usually) is safe if the server is configured securely.
Now why does this matter? Why do I need to care about Virtual Private Servers? Well I’ll give you a few reasons that most people overlook.
Minecraft. Thats right, the video game, Minecraft. You can spin up a multiplayer server in seconds using a VPS. Play with your friends on your own server in the cloud and build cities together.
Media Server. You can host your music or movies on a virtual server, and stream it from anywhere in the world. I love streaming my own music collection from my own media. There is something freeing about cord-cutting streaming when its from my own media.
NextCloud. A powerful self-hosted tool that can be deployed on ANY server in a matter of minutes. I use this powerful Swiss-Army knife as a replacement to Google Photos.
Paperless-NG. More of the academic type? Want somewhere to save your study material? Host your own instance of Paperless-NG in a Virtual Private Server and access your PDFs anywhere you have internet access.
Mumble Server. Looking to move away from Discord but don’t want to stop using a voice/chat server? Host a Mumble Server and be fully in control of your own Voice Server.
Tech Blog. Dare I say it? Be adventurous and host a blog/journal in the cloud. Share it with whoever you want. Make it public. Make it private. It’s your data.
These are all fun and easy projects. They are also all projects that can be hosted on your OWN network. The option to host in the Cloud is nice and assuming you don’t need too much data or the bleeding edge CPUs, it should be fairly affordable.
My favorite VPS Provider is Linode because they make spinning up a Virtual Machine fast and easy. They also have preset options if you know what kind of service you want to run. Just check the Marketplace. Check them out, and learn something new. I hope you learned something today, have fun and stay curious!
Greyson's Tech Blog 