Your VPS vs Vendor’s Platform
Side-by-Side Checklist Comparison
INFRASTRUCTURE & PLATFORM LAYER
| Security Control | Cloud Self-Hosted | Managed SaaS | Effort Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical infrastructure | ❌ Cloud provider | ❌ Vendor | Equal (neither your job) |
| Hypervisor security | ❌ Cloud provider | ❌ Vendor | Equal |
| VM provisioning | ✅ YOU (click/terraform) | ❌ Vendor | -2 hours |
| OS installation | ✅ YOU (choose distro) | ❌ Vendor | -1 hour |
| OS hardening | ✅ YOU (CIS benchmarks) | ❌ Vendor | -8 hours |
| OS patching | ✅ YOU (ongoing) | ❌ Vendor | -4 hours/month |
| Kernel updates | ✅ YOU | ❌ Vendor | -2 hours/month |
| Security groups/firewall | ✅ YOU (configure rules) | ❌ Vendor | -4 hours |
| DDoS protection | ⚠️ Basic included, advanced = $$$ | ❌ Vendor included | -0 hours (basic) |
| WAF | ✅ YOU (CloudFlare/AWS WAF) | ❌ Vendor | -6 hours setup |
| Load balancer | ✅ YOU (if needed) | ❌ Vendor | -4 hours |
| SSL/TLS management | ✅ YOU (Let’s Encrypt/ACM) | ❌ Vendor | -3 hours setup, -1 hour/quarter |
| Docker/Container setup | ✅ YOU (install & harden) | ❌ Vendor | -6 hours |
| Container security | ✅ YOU (scanning, policies) | ❌ Vendor | -4 hours setup, -2 hours/month |
| Database installation | ✅ YOU (PostgreSQL setup) | ❌ Vendor | -4 hours |
| Database hardening | ✅ YOU (config tuning) | ❌ Vendor | -4 hours |
| Database patching | ✅ YOU | ❌ Vendor | -2 hours/quarter |
| Backup infrastructure | ✅ YOU (configure S3/backups) | ❌ Vendor | -6 hours setup |
| Backup testing | ✅ YOU | ❌ Vendor | -2 hours/quarter |
| Disaster recovery | ✅ YOU (design & test) | ❌ Vendor | -16 hours setup, -4 hours/quarter |
| Monitoring infrastructure | ✅ YOU (Prometheus/Grafana/etc) | ❌ Vendor | -12 hours setup |
| Log aggregation | ✅ YOU (setup ELK/Loki) | ❌ Vendor | -8 hours setup |
| Platform installation | ✅ YOU (n8n/Flowwise) | ❌ Vendor | -4 hours |
| Platform configuration | ✅ YOU (environment vars) | ⚠️ Limited UI config | -2 hours |
| Platform updates | ✅ YOU (manual upgrade) | ❌ Vendor (automatic) | -3 hours/quarter |
| CVE monitoring | ✅ YOU (subscribe, track) | ❌ Vendor | -2 hours/month |
| Vulnerability patching | ✅ YOU (apply patches) | ❌ Vendor | -4 hours/critical CVE |
| Performance tuning | ✅ YOU | ⚠️ Limited | -4 hours/quarter |
| Capacity planning | ✅ YOU (scale VM) | ❌ Vendor (auto-scale) | -2 hours/quarter |
| Cost optimization | ✅ YOU (rightsizing) | ⚠️ Per-user pricing | -2 hours/quarter |
Infrastructure Work Eliminated: ~120 hours initial + ~60 hours/year ongoing
What Cloud Self-Hosted ELIMINATES vs On-Prem
✓ Physical data center management
✓ Hardware procurement and maintenance
✓ Power and cooling
✓ Physical security
✓ Network infrastructure (routers, switches)
✓ Basic DDoS protection (included)
Time Saved vs On-Prem: ~60 hours initially, ~10 hours/month ongoing
What Cloud Self-Hosted KEEPS vs SaaS
✗ VM management and scaling
✗ OS installation and hardening
✗ OS patching (ongoing forever)
✗ Container orchestration
✗ Application installation and updates
✗ Database setup and management
✗ Backup infrastructure
✗ Monitoring infrastructure
✗ Security hardening (100+ checklist items)
✗ CVE monitoring and patching
✗ Incident response (infrastructure)
✗ Capacity planning
✗ Performance tuning
This is NOT eliminated: ~160 hours initial, ~20 hours/month ongoing
What’s IDENTICAL Between Cloud Self-Hosted and SaaS
= User authentication and access control (100% same)
= Credential management for integrations (100% same)
= Workflow security and code review (100% same)
= Compliance requirements (100% same)
= Security policies and training (100% same)
= Incident response for data breaches (100% same)
This work is ALWAYS yours: ~60 hours initial, ~10 hours/month