I've been running my own services since around 1996 and have never looked back. The scare stories told by those who either can not or do not want to run their own services and for some reason feel the need to dissuade others from doing so are just that, scare stories. Running your own services may not be for everyone but then again, what is?
From the 486DX2-66 under the stairs via the Pentium-90-under-the-stairs, the BP-6 with dual overclocked Celeron-333s, the re-purposed Virgin Webplayer when I emigrated and needed something small and light while looking for a house, the Intel SS4200 and now a DL380G7 (under the stairs, of course), from Slackware via Redhat to Debian, from a hand-crafted Sendmail config to Exim, from a time when spam was non-existent to a time when spam is something which seems to bother others but which is stopped in its tracks at the gates it has been one unbroken chain of enjoying the freedom of being in control.
Having said that, the total amount of space taken up by the server rack is about 80x110x170cm, half of which is used as a produce drying rack which uses the heat and air flow from the fan in the bottom of the rack to dry fruit/mushrooms/herbs and more of such. This is what it looks like:
By now the D-Link switch has been replaced with a HP, a NetApp DS4243 with a varying number of drives in it sits two slots under the server and the remaining empty slots are covered with blanks to improve air flow. Total power consumption lies around 250-300W depending on load, about 170W of which is taken by the server which idles at 150W. Power use is of no issue given the 15KW solar installation on the roof of the new barn I built a few years ago, the residual heat also helps to warm the 2nd floor - which, being well-insulated, does not need any extra heating even in the Swedish winter.
From the 486DX2-66 under the stairs via the Pentium-90-under-the-stairs, the BP-6 with dual overclocked Celeron-333s, the re-purposed Virgin Webplayer when I emigrated and needed something small and light while looking for a house, the Intel SS4200 and now a DL380G7 (under the stairs, of course), from Slackware via Redhat to Debian, from a hand-crafted Sendmail config to Exim, from a time when spam was non-existent to a time when spam is something which seems to bother others but which is stopped in its tracks at the gates it has been one unbroken chain of enjoying the freedom of being in control.