Welcome to Lab Stack
Why I started this blog and what to expect
Hello, World
Welcome to Lab Stack — a blog about building enterprise-grade infrastructure on a budget.
After 13 years in cloud and DevOps, I’ve learned that the best way to truly understand infrastructure is to build it yourself. Not in a sanitized cloud console, but with real hardware, real failures, and real lessons.
What You’ll Find Here
- Hardware deep-dives: Building dual-socket Xeon workstations from eBay parts
- Self-hosting guides: Running your own services instead of paying cloud rent
- Infrastructure as Code: Proxmox, Docker, Kubernetes, and everything in between
- AI/ML experiments: Running models locally on homelab hardware
- Cost analysis: Comparing self-hosted vs cloud costs with real numbers
The Philosophy
Every post here comes from real experience. If I write about a Proxmox cluster, it’s running in my Home. Currently, I live in a very old home which I actually enjoy. I have 1/2 my homelab in a room downstairs, and I’m using a wifi AP / Bridge to connect to my main office upstairs. I’m actually really excited to turn this old house into a “smart” secure home. I plan to share my journey building all the services, gadgets, and so forth with anyone who finds it. I also plan to write a book starting in 2026 about my ideas on AI and maybe something funny about the end of the world and how to survive.
No theoretical tutorials. No “I read the docs” guides. Just real infrastructure, real problems, and real solutions.
Let’s build something.