What is a Service?

Access from anywhere – at any time – over the global connected Internet infrastructure is the purported goal of global cloud computing.  Through the cloud, anyone is able tocan access data stored on remote servers no matter where they are in the globe.  With an internet connection, you can use software installed on someone else's computer system without needing to maintain hardware or installsetup software yourself.

 

Business By Proxy

For corporations, a service might be considered many different things and falls along a spectrum. On one end, this may be "bare metal" hardware infrastructure or a Docker instance that is rented per month.   On the other, a company may subscribe to web-based software or discrete functions that are pay-per-use. 

This business model is commonly referred to as "Anything as a Service" where, instead of owning a product outright, a service provider licenses access to a maintained product for a lump sum or subscription fee.  These services are remotely accessible over the internet instead of requiring physical access to the hardware systems. 

This extends from technology companies to corporations and, by proxy, these cloud services have taken over most of the consumer-connected World Wide Web.  The Cloud is used to invisibly control the flow of consumer data between "front-end" clients – such as the Google Drive website or the Pages app for iOS – and the provider's labyrinthian "back-end" networks and systems.

You can't own a physical CD with the service on it, available for install on your computer.  This removes the control of software from users and instead makes access to it available only by agreeing to a software license.  These software services often require creating an account with the provider, after which access to the product is free or follows a "freemuim" business model.  Services may use these accounts to collect privileged information about a consumer that can be sold to advertisers.  Subscribing to a service does not save you from surveillance and may actually make you more of a target.

Many cloud services are built on top of an API (Application Programming Interface) – or established specifications that allow multiple services to communicate with each other through a common language.  Through an API, clients and servers alike can request and receive information from a central location.  

In practice, this allows consumers to uniformly access services like Proton Mail through numerous, isolate experiences – like their website, mobile apps, and desktop software.  This also functionally means that there is only one version of the software, which is the software hosted on the API server by the provider.  Even when consumers use different client versions installed on their desktop or phones, they are still connecting to a central API server under the control of the software provider.

 

 

Digital Autonomy

Self-Hosting is the practice of managing your own server and hosting your own services on-premises instead of subscribing to a cloud provider.  By managing your own infrastructure, your data stays in your possession. Much of the software available for self-hosting are created by open-source communities. This enables everyone to create their own personal cloud for themselves or a small group – like your immediate family or a small business.

This uses the same technologies as cloud computing companies, just on a smaller scale for a single home server instead of a distributed global data center infrastructure.  While you are fully in control of your data, it also becomes your responsibility to maintain your server's hardware and software.

 

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Federation

Within web based services, this often means features that can be accessed by creating a user account.  For some services,– there are more self-hosted services exploring the concept of federation.  Instead of a single user,designated whereasserver, otherseach lowservice instance behaves as an equal within a peer-to-peer network and communicate through a shared API language.  For example, this allows your OwnCloud server to communicate and share files with a friend's OwnCloud server.

There are so many open-source software projects available for trueself-hosting multiuseron the internet.  Many services provide their own browser-based web applications, as well as platform-specific software such as an Android app.  Some services – like Radarr for managing a movie collection – operate as a single user environment. 
 Many services offer true multi-user support with individually-customizable accounts.  These generally come with an administrative panel for managing user access and configuring the service for them.  

SomeIncreasingly, maythese needdisparate software packages are improving support for "Single Sign-On" services like Authelia that offer unified user accounts across multiple self-hosted services.  These services leverage open standards like OpenID to beensure configuredsecurity throughand files,privacy. butPractically, manythis workmeans withthat guisigning configurationin for one service will open access to all of your self-hosted services without needing to log in again.

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