I put together and run a LAMP server, where this website, most of my digital projects, most of my clients' websites and projects, internet radio stations, email and so forth can run fast, reliably and securely under my direct control.    I got fed-up with fly-by-night hosting companies - or good ones selling out to them - and their lack of security and show-stopping restrictions. 

Proprietary shenanigans had left me feeling ripped-off and powerless.   There was a learning curve up front to my serving myself, but it is tremendously liberating now that I'm comfortable running and configuring the thing at will.   It was superficially hacked once, with no permanent damage done thanks to diligent backups, and that experience caused me to become something of an expert on internet server security.  I work entirely with open source* platforms and applications including Linux (Ubuntu), Apache with virtual domains, PHP, MySQL, Postfix, Postgressql, Imagemagick, Icecast and so on. 

* Open Source

Proprietary closed-source "solutions" may have a quickie rush-to-market development cycle but are necessarily unverifiable, unfixable, inflexible and notoriously unreliable.  Often laden with gloss and useless "features", proprietary software need only be sold to be considered "successful" and so is designed primarily for sale, not for people or real world use.   The Micro-serfs and Fanboys who employ proprietary "solutions" can neither stand behind their work nor can they have any way to know that it is secure or robust; they can't even be sure what "their" work is exactly or what all else it might be doing without their knowledge.   Non-standards-compliant software purposely fails to play nice or fairly with others, causing endless and surprise incompatibility issues.  When a closed source "solution" fails by error or design there is nothing you can do; it simply leaves you in the lurch.  By contrast an open source GPL standards-compliant tool can be user evaluated and verified down to the ones and zeros if necessary, making it useful and trustworthy to its users who can maintain true ownership, control and responsibility.   Open source also encourages learning, adaptation, experimentation, creativity and innovation, all qualities over which the owners of the proprietary temptations will take you to court.