>What if I need to send emails? These days doing this ourselves is a dark art by itself (IP/domain address warming up, checking if my domain has not ended on some spam list, etc.).

AFAIK, everyone sending automated emails just uses one of the paid services, like sendmail.

>What if I need to follow some regulations, like European Union GDPR compliance? Have I done everything what is needed to store personal data as GDPR requires? Is my DB password stored in a compliant way or I will face a fine up to 10% of my incomes.

What does this have to do with cloud vs non-cloud? You'll need to manage your data correctly either way.

Setting up the email server is the only thing I couldn't do with my own home hosted setup because you're at the mercy of your internet provider to give you the PTR record in their network, and lately many providers outright refuse to do it for "your own and their own safety" reasons. This thing alone could be the difference between deciding to host yourself or use a cloud service.

Just use the Postmark web service API, cheap, reliable, and far more if one really wants to lean into email with their online service. https://postmarkapp.com/email-api

I am aware of the tons of subscription based email services but that is not the point here. What good is self hosting when you still need to rely on some external paid service for a trivial thing like an email server? The costs add up.

Except email is not trivial, it's a time vampire I'm happy to pay $15 a month to not have to deal with.

Isn't this long list applied to cloud hosted VMs as well?

They're saying that when they pay a cloud provider, the cloud provider is on the hook for the details.

All of this is true both for dedicated servers and cloud-hosted VMs.

This list looks like FUD, to be honest, trying to scare people. Yes, you should be scared of these things, but none of them are magically solved by hosting your stuff in AWS/Azure/Google or any other could provider du jour.

Some of them are solved by using managed-services that abstract away the messy config / security ops stuff.

The blog entry was wordy and repetitive for what it expressed (AI?), but the cloud argument should boil down to a few simple questions:

   - Does it get you regulatory certifications you need?
   - Do you need to rapidly scale-up / scale-down?
   - Can you afford to hire the (minimal) necessary skills to self-administer servers?
   - Can you stay on top of security updates?

Add all that together and you get a few customers who should be using the cloud:

   - Regulated companies who want to punt on certs/attestations
   - Small/medium growth-oriented startups (unknown needs, low headcount, focus on building product)
   - Companies with hardware demand volatility that exceeds their ability to provision it

That's not "all companies" or "no companies" either way, but it is a very large number of companies who are paying cloud premiums without actually needing or benefiting from the cloud value add...

Yes, you will need to employ someone with basic system administration competence. That's a given.

Cloud infra is touted as obviating the need to hire system administrators, but that's a marketing fabrication. Trying to manage infrastructure without the necessary in-house skills is a recipe for disaster, whether it's in the cloud or on-prem.