The Journey of Building My Own NAS Cloud

Building my own home network has been one of the most rewarding projects I've undertaken. As a software engineering student, I found myself constantly needing a reliable place to host my applications, databases, and general file storage. Relying on paid cloud providers was getting expensive, and I wanted total control over my data.

Why Synology?

I chose Synology because of its excellent DiskStation Manager (DSM) operating system. It provides a perfect balance between an out-of-the-box solution and advanced customization through SSH and Docker.

Key Features of My Setup:

• 16TB of Storage: Enough to store all my game assets from The Manifesto, videos for MGFsDev, and more.
• Docker Integration: I run multiple containers for personal APIs, this very portfolio website, and network-wide ad blocking with Pi-Hole.
• Reverse Proxy & SSL: I manage all my domains through an Nginx reverse proxy, securing everything with Let's Encrypt.

Self-hosting my projects has given me invaluable experience in DevOps and system administration. It is the backbone of all the software and games I build!