Ciao ropatrick! You nailed it perfectly. The big corporations made it incredibly easy — two minutes and you’re in. But “free” and “easy” always has a price, and in this case it’s your data and your independence. You’re right that self-hosting is still too technical for most people. That’s actually part of why I built lake8.dev — to make this kind of infrastructure more accessible for small businesses, at least in the manufacturing sector. And yes — that feeling of satisfaction is very real. Every time the server handles real traffic from my living room, it feels like a small personal victory against the cloud monopoly. 😄 Grazie for the kind words — and for actually reading and understanding the post!