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Re: encryption.

The server is encrypted, as are all the VMs (except ones I don't care about, say running a small web app or whatever).

Most stuff is in KeePass, and the database is then backed up.

The encryption keys are stored in KeePass. That database is my most important thing, and I have many copies of it that stay in sync. For eg, I have a script that emails it to me once a day.

I use an app called PhotoSync on iOS to backup pictures. The synology app can backup music and video (as far as I know), but I prefer PhotoSync.

The USB drive at home is NOT encrypted. If someone steals that, they will have access to my docs and pics, but not to KeePass of course. This is done for ease of access in case something happens to me.

No, not really. It isn't a huge time investment if you know all this well (let's say you sysadmin for work).

Of course it is not feasible for most people to do this, just like it's not feasible for me personally to rebuild my car's engine, or grow vegetables in my garden. Both of which my neighbor does with great ease.

The point is, I use my skills to make my life better, as everyone does. I enjoy it, and it has the side effect of keeping my data private. For things I'm not good at, I either spend time getting good, or I pay a professional for his time and skills.

My mother uses Google and Apple services to back up her photos and data, and I wouldn't dream of forcing my approach on her.

My spouse asked me to set all this up for them, since they share my feelings about data privacy.

Agreed. That's exactly how I feel as well. I'm only dependent on my own machines.

I use HyperV. The server reboots once a month for security updates.

Guests - it depends on the OS the guest is running. I follow standard best practice for each OS. The server has encrypted drives, and each VM disk is also encrypted.

Remote Admin - SSH, Remote Desktop, Powershell etc. Standard management protocols. Since I have the IPSEC VPN always running, I can use anything.

I'm aware that I could be hacked if someone sufficiently skilled wanted to take me down, but that's true of anything stored online. I've achieved a reasonable level of security and I have control over my data.

1 - Synology has mail software that can backup any IMAP mailbox

2 - Searched, emailed, asked questions. I ended up with three or four quotes and picked one

3 - It's only a few hundred miles away geographically. Latency is under 30ms. This is 10x my home lan (2-3 ms), but in practice I have no issues with SSH or Remote Desktop. Both feel as fast as having the machine on my LAN.

Yes and no.

My spouse can easily access anything family related - pictures, documents, passwords (keepass) from their computer. The NAS and the Colo Server both present as shared drives on the network and they use it almost every day.

The USB drive is plug and play and has copies of anything important.

However, all my git repos, websites, tech projects etc will probably not survive my passing. I don't really care about that.

They will still be backed up and accessible on the NAS, so if someone in my family (I have a few technically adept people in the family) wanted to check it out, my spouse would be able to give them access. Honestly, I don't think anyone would care, but who knows.

All passwords and access details are in KeePass and my spouse uses that everyday so knows how to use it,

My colo server is paid a year in advance every year, so it would chug along for a few months before the provider shut it down and shipped it back to my house (again, my spouse knows how to get it shipped back).

All in all, I think my family would be able to access anything truly valuable without too much trouble, and who cares about the other stuff anyway.

I'm not the OP, but I have been doing this for some years now. Here's how I went about it.

I got out of social media in early 2012. Deleted FB and Twitter. I do maintain a presence on LinkedIn, but I never post anything there, nor do I login. It's mostly there because employers expect a LI profile. It's just a bland copy of my resume.

I moved my email from Gmail to my own domain from 2013-2015. It took almost two years because I had Gmail since April 2004, a few days after launch. My whole digital life was tied into Gmail, and moving stuff over takes time. I still have that Gmail account, but again, I never log into anything Google, and it simply forwards any email to my real account. I get maybe 1 email a month from Gmail.

I host my email with Fastmail, but I've also selfhosted, and tried O365. It's easy to switch, and I keep an offline backup of everything.

Now, my hardware and software setup.

At home, I have a Synology NAS with ~12 TB of usable storage. This is my primary data store - I have software that automiatically backs up all photos from my Iphone, Time Machine, Veeam, Rysnc, and email backup.

I own my own physical server (Dell R720XD) which is colocated in a datacenter in a different country. This server has 96 GB of RAM, 16 TB of storage, and 12 Xeon cores. It usually runs between 12-25 VMs, some of which are production (personal), hosting my websites, git, various projects, and so on. It's connected to the internet through a gigabit connection with a 10 TB monthly bandwidth cap (I never come close to 1 TB!). This costs me ~$85 a month. I don't do BGP, though I could if I paid some more and put in a proper router and got my own IP range.. as it stands, the 8 public IPs I get are enough for me.

The colo server is connected via an always-on, site-to-site IPSEC VPN to my home LAN (through my EdgeRouter X). I have symmetric gigabit, so it's practically like having the machine in my house.

My NAS backs up to the colo server, and the colo server to the NAS (via rsync). The NAS also backs up to a local USB drive, for quick restores.

All my home data lives in four places

1. The local PC/laptop/phone. 2. The NAS 3. The USB Disk 4. The offsite colo server.

Likewise, all my colo data lives in the same four places.

I can VPN in to the colo server and get connected to my home lan from anywhere in the world. Any sensitive data is encrypted - and anything really sensitive is not stored on a computer.

This setup works very well for me and my family, and I control all my data and am not dependent on a cloud provider. I also have a bunch of other servers running in my home, but they aren't part of my core infrastructure.

The cost?

~$1200 for the R720. ~$1000 for the NAS. and ~$85 a month for colocation costs.