Although this is a valid question, it doesn't apply here. See, I try to teach myself something new every year, whether it's a new programming language, platform

Although this is a valid question, it doesn't apply here. See, I try to teach myself something new every year, whether it's a new programming language, platform or whatever else. It was curiosity that turned my non-existent infrastructure into having a cheap, small-scale Kubernetes cluster ready for my shenanigans. My tiny cluster gives me great freedom. Setup is fully automated. When a new k8s release comes around, I simply tear down my old cluster and ramp up a new one in mere minutes. If I want to deploy a service or application, all I need to do is to write a couple of manifests and roll all the moving parts out. Hassle-free - no SSH, no additional costs, no accounts, no 3rd-party services, persistent storage and TLS certificates out of the box. Currently, a Unifi controller is the only long-term resident on my cluster; other services and projects come and go. Besides that, the following agents are deployed as Kubernetes pods: Datadog (free tier) for basic monitoring & alerting and Papertrail ($5-10/month) which acts as a centralized log sink for all my hosts, NAS and networking gear.