Fired big tech and hired Docker to protect my data
I have always found myself tied to a dozen different subscriptions where I traded my personal data for the convenience of free cloud services. But as the privacy policies grew longer and the control over my information felt shorter, I decided it was time for a change.
I have spent the last few months migrating my digital life away from proprietary platforms into a self-hosted ecosystem powered by Docker. By moving these key services to my own hardware, I eliminated monthly fees and regained my digital privacy.
OpenCloud
Private, high-speed cloud
One of the impactful moves I made was ditching Google Drive for OpenCloud. With Google Drive, I realized I wasn’t just paying for storage; I was paying for metadata.
Every photo I uploaded was being indexed, and every document was being scanned for insights. I chose OpenCloud because it’s built on modern, cloud-native architecture. Unlike some other self-hosted options that can feel heavy (looking at you, Nextcloud), OpenCloud is written in Go, which makes it quite fast.
I run OpenCloud as a Docker container on my home server. This setup lets me treat my storage as a private cloud I control. I use the mobile app to automatically sync every photo and video I take directly to my server.
It feels exactly like Google Photos, but the files go straight to my hard drives. I have also set up dedicated Spaces for different parts of my life — one for my technology writing projects and another for private family archives.
The list of features continues with selective sync, document collaboration, and more.
Bitwarden
Your keys, your control
If there is one thing that you shouldn’t leave to a free cloud service, it’s the key to your entire digital life. For a long time, I used the cloud version of Bitwarden.
