Comment by j45

Separating storage, compute, and database into dedicated appliances makes sense for home labs. Getting redundant units early is key.

A pre-built NAS (configured to raid 5 at least) is worth the cost - storage should be set-and-forget since drives will fail and hot-swapping drives and automatic rebuilds should be zero downtime to life. Commercial NAS solutions have proven backup workflows.

For compute and databases, home setups can mirror to cloud or remote locations. Proxmox makes this straightforward with its web admin - just a few clicks to spin up replicas.

Modern consumer hardware and internet are quite reliable now. Business-grade equipment performs even better.