The Homelab Handbook (A Definitive Guide to Self-Hosting)

Top-tier IT professionals keep their skills sharp through homelabbing, the practice of running enterprise-grade software at home, primarily for learning purposes. A homelab is a key differentiator at any stage of an IT career, from a senior-year computer science student breaking out of the classroom to a senior specialist aiming for the next step on the career ladder. It helps you zoom out, play roles your colleagues usually own, and keep your skills fresh across the full stack, even as the tech industry demands more specialization.

The Homelab Handbook is the first-ever book published on homelabbing, a topic that's growing as traditional forms of study lag behind the fast pace of the IT industry. Ricard Bejarano, a site reliability engineering technical leader at Cisco whose career started with a refurbished ThinkPad X201, shows you how to plan, build, and use a homelab for learning and experimentation, regardless of purpose or hardware choices.

• Understand homelab basics and the common patterns
• Break out of your niche and learn the full stack
• Stand out from the candidate pool using homelab-acquired experience
• Explore homelabbing as a driver of open source contribution