server At home or in the cloud

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Pushkar1

Joined Apr 5, 2021
416
As far as I know the server can be run in the cloud or at home. I can't find the reason under what circumstances the server should be run in the cloud and under what circumstances the server should run at home. Mostly I have seen that the server run on the cloud for security purpose. AWS, Google Cloud, Azure provide security. If the server has to run in the cloud, for this we have to pay some amount. it is not free.

Till now i have run local server at my home. my server was on raspberry pi at my home.

1) How do yo decides servers will run at home or in the cloud?

2) Servers cost money to run in the cloud, Is that why the server should not run in the cloud?

3) Do you run your server at home or in the cloud. can you tell the reason why and where do you run your servers?
 

Thread Starter

Pushkar1

Joined Apr 5, 2021
416
I don't run a server. I have absolutely no reason to do so. My cost for this choice is $0.00
I'm surprised you never did a project in your long career in which you ran a server. Well it is not necessary for everyone. but i think the server is mostly used in iot project.

Really have you never done any IoT project in your career?
 

sagor

Joined Mar 10, 2019
903
I run a server at home. There are issues with doing so.
1) You need a good firewall to block most intrusion attempts by hackers. There are a few good, free, Linux firewalls out there. I've used Microtik and IPFIRE at different times.
2) Server has to be set up securely. I used a tool called ISPCONFIG, which creates individual website directories on the server. Access to a web site HAS TO BE by name only. Any access by IP address fails. Most hack scanners probe by IP address first, then try to attack what's on the system after. (some do attack web site directly)
3) Your internet service should have a static IP address (usually costs money). However, people can run servers at home with dynamic DNS services. Just takes a bit more setup. You have to register a DNS name with some provider
4) Internet service must have good upload speeds. That is what your public Internet users see for performance. Many home services have fast download speeds, but much lower upload. Check what you have.
5) Many ISPs prohibit servers on their home services. Check your contract and terms of use. Many also limit data usage to "fair amount", not unlimited....

So, once set up, yes, it is relatively "free" to run a home server, other than electricity and maintenance. Do regular backups!
 

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Pushkar1

Joined Apr 5, 2021
416
I need to build biometric attendance system for a school in which thousands of students study. I need to keep record of all these students attendance.

What advice would you give me for this project? Where do I need to save data on a local server at home or in the cloud?

@sagor Thank you. I appreciate your valuable information
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,846
Mostly I have seen that the server run on the cloud for security purpose.
You are sadly mistaken. Server security is only as good as its weakest link and server farms are big juicy targets for hackers. I consider anything in the Cloud to be insecure because whoever is running it has to do backups, so you lose control over your data. Remember the huge Yahoo and Equifax data leaks? They were likely caused by an employee who did something they shouldn't have done.

The only "computer" I have running 24/7 is a Raspberry Pi and I use it as a "server". Any important files from other computers are copied to the Pi and they're later downloaded to the computer where I run daily backups (if someone wakes it up). The Pi is on the private part of my password protected, hidden SSID WiFi and I use the firewall in my DSL box. I disabled all of the ports that I don't use.

What advice would you give me for this project? Where do I need to save data on a local server at home or in the cloud?
Keep it on a school district server. I assume they have a backup methodology to minimize significant (more than a up to a day) data loss.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,087
I don't see much use in running a 7/24 home server unless it's actually server grade hardware that can help in the protection of your vital data with hardware error correction and redundancy down to the CPU chip level. A few years old server hardware is still cheap on the surplus market so that's what I use for my home processing needs with Linux running it all from the firewall, compute server, NAS media server and the critical backup server using bacula.
https://www.bacula.org/

PXL_20211028_230107480.jpg
https://www.amazon.com/HP-DL360p-Gen8-RackMount-PC3-10600R/dp/B07QCVVF7D
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,846
Till now i have run local server at my home. my server was on raspberry pi at my home.
I said I used a Pi as a "server" because a real server would have redundant, hot swappable power supplies, drives, fans, etc.

I have an IBM 235 server, but it's too power hungry to leave running 24/7 for what I need. I couldn't find caddies for the SCSI drives, so I had to do some jury-rigging.
 
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Thread Starter

Pushkar1

Joined Apr 5, 2021
416
I consider anything in the Cloud to be insecure because whoever is running it has to do backups, so you lose control over your data.
Are you sure because I read somewhere on the internet. Data is more secure in the cloud. For example, given that the data of biometric attendance in the company is uploaded in the cloud.

i will try to find that link on internet. If I can find that link, I will definitely give it for reference.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
I'm surprised you never did a project in your long career in which you ran a server. Well it is not necessary for everyone. but i think the server is mostly used in iot project.

Really have you never done any IoT project in your career?
Never did an IOT project, and never ran a server.
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,846
Are you sure because I read somewhere on the internet. Data is more secure in the cloud. For example, given that the data of biometric attendance in the company is uploaded in the cloud.
You can't believe a lot of things you read on the internet. You have to use common sense.

How secure is your data if someone hacks the server and steals it? How secure is the data if the server has backups that they keep for years? Even after you delete it, it will persist for some time; maybe a long time. Once you lose control of your data, I consider it insecure.

At least if it's on a disk under your control, you control when it gets backed up, how long it's retained, and who has access. Assuming you don't get "hacked".

When I was a computer operations supervisor, we kept one monthly backup each year for many years. For important data, duplicate backups were made and one copy was sent to an offsite storage facility.
 

KeithWalker

Joined Jul 10, 2017
3,063
Are you sure because I read somewhere on the internet. Data is more secure in the cloud. For example, given that the data of biometric attendance in the company is uploaded in the cloud.

i will try to find that link on internet. If I can find that link, I will definitely give it for reference.
The only places I have seen that promote the security of data on the cloud is in advertising literature for the cloud.
I will not pay for someone else to look after my data and backups on their server. I prefer to store it where only I have access to it. That way, I know exactly how secure it is.
In my very long career in electronics and computers (65 years), I too have not worked on any Io T projects. Having been around since before the first rudimentary internet formed, I am acutely aware of how insecure it is. It is fair game to anyone who wants to access other people's data for illegal profit or bragging rights.
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,846
I never worked on any IoT projects professionally either; unless you count on working on the designs for the microprocessors that would be used for them. It didn't become a "thing" until 10 years or so ago and in my professional work, I had bigger fish to fry (like multi-core 64-bit microprocessors on the bleeding edge of process technology).
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
I would say that if you trust security in the cloud, then you have already decided that you can risk losing your data. And hope to recoup your loss with a good and expensive lawyer.

You have to define “security”. What is the minimum acceptable loss of data? 0 hours? 1hour? 1 day? 1 week? 1 month? 1 quarter? 1 year?

The same goes for your software availability. What’s the longest your software could be unavailable?



I was responsible for an e-commerce site. My data was recoverable up to fifteen minutes prior.

Unless there were multiple failures, my software (web site) was available 99.995% of the time, 24x7x365. That was my operational requirement. But it came with a price tag in the $10,000s

Finally, consider security against hackers. Special software, firewalls, level 4 security devices… are all necessary to protect your site. At various levels. At a minimum, consider the built-in firewall of your Internet router. But protection against hackers have an associated cost.

The cloud may or may not have all these features. But they are not free!
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
I kinda sorta do have a server, but it is more like for backups and what not. Recently I just added a USB3 2 gig hard drive to my mostly unused laptop in the living room specifically to do backups. Except for that I don't really have a use for a server.

Before printers became network accessible I would use a computer as a printer server but the printers have caught up on that function so it is no longer needed.
 
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