I made the decision to self-host my WordPress blog four years ago. I was reluctant at first. But being a developer, I wanted to expand my server administration skills.

Digital Ocean was popular in the cloud web hosting territory back then and their documentation and affordability were icing on the cake. I spun up a server with my limited knowledge and things were pretty good.

Four years later, here I’m sharing my experience with Digital Ocean. In these four years, my servers crashed twice. Because of the way I had set up my files, I lost all my data. I wouldn’t blame Digital Ocean for the loss of data.

However, I got pretty uncomfortable the second time I lost the data. The urge to move to a different cloud web hosting was stronger than ever. So I started looking for alternatives.

I remembered using Linode at work a couple of years ago. I never experienced an issue with their reliability. Without second thought, I opted for Linode.

Making the switch

I chose to go with Linode’s starter plan — Nanode. Because I know I can expand later. Moving to Linode also meant revisiting my server administration skills. But this time, I had a couple of things in mind —

1. Setup backs to prevent losing database and files
2. Tighten up server security

Setting up a server this time wasn’t as complex as I did four years ago. I matured enough to be able to know a bit more of the server-side stuff. Not only did I set up the server (Nanode) but also attached a block storage to my Nanode for data backups.

I documented everything that I did while setting up using Obsidian, a cross-platform note taking app. A couple of weeks passed by since I made the switch. The backups make me feel safe allowing me to sleep peacefully.

Today, I’m grateful for the Almighty for the life I live.