===== The Self-Hosted Stack - Building Your Own Cloud with Open Source =====
  * **Speaker**: Brandon Hopkins  
  * **Room**: HC 203  
  * **Time**: Sun 9:30 am – 10:00 am  

  * **Format**: Lecture (30 Min + Q&A)  
  * **Difficulty**: Introductory  
  * **Track**: Self-Hosting  
  * **Presenter Location**: In-person  
  * **Experience**: first time speaking  

==== Description: ====  
Most people assume that building a personal cloud requires expensive hardware, endless maintenance, or settling for something unreliable. Brandon has been running a production‑grade homelab for years, and in this talk he shows how approachable — and powerful — a modern self‑hosted stack can be.

Attendees will walk through a real, fully open‑source home cloud built on:

  * **Proxmox** as the virtualization foundation  
  * **Nextcloud** as an alternative to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace  
  * **Immich** as a replacement for Google Photos  
  * **Jellyfin** instead of commercial streaming services  
  * **NetBird** to securely connect everything without punching firewall holes  

The session covers why people switch to self‑hosting, the real‑world tradeoffs, and what you should consider before diving in. You’ll leave with a clear picture of what a modern open‑source home cloud looks like, what it takes to build one, and whether it’s the right move for you.

**Target Audience:**  
  * People interested in self‑hosting