A Step Towards E-Sustainability : Deploying Legacy Devices for Self-Hosted Personal Clouds
Irshad, Imran (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025112529627
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025112529627
Tiivistelmä
This thesis assesses the feasibility of deploying a Self-Hosted Personal Cloud (SPC) systems on legacy devices ascertaining sustainable and data privacy focused alternative to Commercial Cloud Platforms (CCPs). Further, thesis discussed the user motivations for adopting such a deployment and also comparing them against CCPs.
The thesis has put light on suitable open-source tools useful in deployment of competitive SPC. This study also encompassed minimum hardware requirements for the self-hosted cloud deployment. The study aimed to deploy an SPC on a legacy laptop using Nextcloud, an opensource tool, as a cloud on top of Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS. Further, this study has also presented a comparative analysis of the deployed SPC with selected CCPs to let users define their priorities. The selected parameters for comparative analysis were based on the core key aspects of any cloud computing services which included responsiveness, data transfer speeds, network stability, security, and cost efficiency as parameters.
The review of already available literature has been conducted to highlight the major concepts of cloud computing for example privacy, cost efficiency and data security, alongwith exploration of open-source tools. The research methodology of the thesis is based on ‘experimental research’ involving setting up and configuring SPC on a legacy laptop. Further, the ‘comparative analysis’ stage benchmarked the performance evaluation of deployed SPC with CCPs.
The study tested performance of the SPC under real-world conditions. The tools such as ping, curl, and SSL Labs were used to attain the results for selected parameters to assess the competitive evaluation. Keen manual observation was also important while testing and assessing the built setup. Performance evaluation for uploading, downloading, network stability, and lightweight multi-user testing was assessed. Lastly, practical approach was completed with a comparative analysis with two selected CCPs i.e. Google Drive and OneDrive under the same conditions to ensure fairness.
The results demonstrated that SPCs are able to achieve reliable performance in everyday usage of a moderate user, even on aging hardware. The deployed SPC performed basic tasks of file syncing, document access, alongwith remote access efficiently. Comparative analysis in the study has suggested that legacy devices can be effectively repurposed to host personal cloud servers. Re-using the old hardware for modern application can significantly reduce electronic waste. The research presents SPCs as an alternative to CCPs for users who are more concerned about data sovereignty, security, cost, and environmental impact.
The thesis has put light on suitable open-source tools useful in deployment of competitive SPC. This study also encompassed minimum hardware requirements for the self-hosted cloud deployment. The study aimed to deploy an SPC on a legacy laptop using Nextcloud, an opensource tool, as a cloud on top of Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS. Further, this study has also presented a comparative analysis of the deployed SPC with selected CCPs to let users define their priorities. The selected parameters for comparative analysis were based on the core key aspects of any cloud computing services which included responsiveness, data transfer speeds, network stability, security, and cost efficiency as parameters.
The review of already available literature has been conducted to highlight the major concepts of cloud computing for example privacy, cost efficiency and data security, alongwith exploration of open-source tools. The research methodology of the thesis is based on ‘experimental research’ involving setting up and configuring SPC on a legacy laptop. Further, the ‘comparative analysis’ stage benchmarked the performance evaluation of deployed SPC with CCPs.
The study tested performance of the SPC under real-world conditions. The tools such as ping, curl, and SSL Labs were used to attain the results for selected parameters to assess the competitive evaluation. Keen manual observation was also important while testing and assessing the built setup. Performance evaluation for uploading, downloading, network stability, and lightweight multi-user testing was assessed. Lastly, practical approach was completed with a comparative analysis with two selected CCPs i.e. Google Drive and OneDrive under the same conditions to ensure fairness.
The results demonstrated that SPCs are able to achieve reliable performance in everyday usage of a moderate user, even on aging hardware. The deployed SPC performed basic tasks of file syncing, document access, alongwith remote access efficiently. Comparative analysis in the study has suggested that legacy devices can be effectively repurposed to host personal cloud servers. Re-using the old hardware for modern application can significantly reduce electronic waste. The research presents SPCs as an alternative to CCPs for users who are more concerned about data sovereignty, security, cost, and environmental impact.