Why You Should Be Self-Hosting Your Own Cloud Storage with Nextcloud

Why You Should Be Self-Hosting Your Own Cloud Storage with Nextcloud

What is Nextcloud?

When it comes to cloud storage and collaboration, there are many options to choose from. While proprietary cloud services like Google Cloud and Microsoft OneDrive are popular choices, many users are turning to Nextcloud as a more secure and customizable alternative. Nextcloud is an open-source, self-hosted file sharing and collaboration platform that can be used as an alternative to cloud-based services such as Google Cloud, Dropbox, or Microsoft OneDrive. We'll explore some of the key reasons why you should choose Nextcloud over proprietary cloud offerings.

Advantages of using Nextcloud:

  • Control over your data: One of the biggest benefits of using Nextcloud is that you have full control over where your data is stored and who has access to it. With proprietary cloud services, your data is stored on servers that you don't own or control, and the company behind the service can access your data at any time. With Nextcloud, you can choose to host your own server or use a third-party hosting provider, giving you complete control over your data.
  • Resiliency: With Nextcloud, you are not subject to the terms of service and privacy policies of a proprietary provider. This can be particularly important for businesses or organizations that have strict data privacy regulations to comply with. Additionally, you may not wish to be subjected to rapidly changing political or social winds and running the risk of your account being cancelled or given an abrupt migration deadline due to corporate content moderation.
  • Customization: Nextcloud is highly customizable, and you can add a wide range of additional features and integrations to the platform. This allows you to tailor Nextcloud to your specific needs and workflow. Proprietary cloud services often have a more limited set of features, and you may not be able to add the integrations you need.
  • Cost: Nextcloud can be more cost-effective than proprietary cloud services, particularly for businesses or organizations that have a large amount of data to store. For example, we offer fully featured storage VPSes as cheap as $3 per TB per month with plenty of bandwidth to utilize the storage. Additionally, being open-source means Nextcloud has no licensing fees to pay.
  • Security: Nextcloud offers a wide range of security features, including end-to-end encryption and two-factor authentication, which can help to protect data from unauthorized access.
  • Privacy: With Nextcloud, you have more control over your data since it is not locked on servers you have no control or access to by a third party. This can be a big concern for many users, and Nextcloud's open-source nature means that the code is open for inspection, making it more transparent and trustworthy.

Often users undervalue the potential risk of a data breach at large consolidated providers. There have been several high-profile data breaches involving proprietary services. Some recent examples:

  • August 2021: Thousands of Microsoft Azure customer's account data exposed.
  • November 2019: Alibaba exposes massive amounts of customer data to webcrawling attack.
  • August 2019: Facebook was breached sometime prior to August 2019, but didn't even bother notifying customers until 2021.
  • March and December 2018: Two large scale Google+ bugs exposing over 52 million users' data.

The worst part for many of these breaches is that the company did not notify customers until much later or in some cases never and the breach was only discovered after the hacked materials were published online.

It's important to note that all cloud services, including proprietary and open-source, can be vulnerable to data breaches. It's important for users to be aware of the risks and take appropriate measures to protect their data. The difference we hope to illustrate with Nexcloud is that you do have the ability and freedom to take exceptional measures to protect, secure, and backup your data that would not be possible with proprietary cloud solutions. Additionally, your specific private cloud instance would be way less likely to attract the same amount of attention and effort that a large target like Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or Dropbox would.  

In summary, Nextcloud is a powerful and flexible open-source alternative to proprietary cloud services like Google Cloud and Microsoft OneDrive. With Nextcloud, you have full control over your data, can customize the platform to your needs, can save money, have advanced security features and have more privacy. It's an ideal solution for businesses, organizations and individuals looking for a more secure and customizable cloud storage and collaboration solution. Unlike proprietary cloud services, Nextcloud offers you the ability to host your own server, potentially eliminating the risk of large data breaches like the ones we've seen at large tech companies. If you're interested in how to install Nextcloud and run your own cloud instance, check out our knowledgebase for step-by-step instructions on installing Nextcloud with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.