FIELD NOTE / 01
Cloud & VPSFoundation
How to choose a VPS without guessing
Turn an application idea into a useful resource budget, then compare CPU, memory, storage and transfer together.
4 min readRead the guide
SWISSOCTET / INSIGHTS & FIELD GUIDESClarity for
Clarity for
what comes
next.
Go deeper than the spec sheet. Practical knowledge for private infrastructure, sharper decisions and systems you can actually operate.
ENGINEERING PRINCIPLES. PRACTICAL DECISIONS. PRIMARY SOURCES.KNOWLEDGE / CONNECTED
COMPUTE
Understand the workload.
Understand the workload.
PRIVACY
Know the boundaries.
Know the boundaries.
OPERATIONS
Build for day two.
AN INTERCONNECTED WAY TO THINKBuild for day two.
32In-depth field guides
08Connected disciplines
04Learning paths
20Terms, made clear
THE STARTING POINTA better question.
A better question.
A better configuration.
FEATURED GUIDE / CLOUD & VPS
How to choose a VPS without guessing
Turn an application idea into a useful resource budget, then compare CPU, memory, storage and transfer together.
Read the field guide 4 min readTHE KNOWLEDGE LIBRARYFind your next
Find your next
clear answer.
From a first VPS to a recovery drill. Explore the decisions that shape your infrastructure.
32 guides · All disciplines
EXPLORE AT YOUR OWN DEPTHFIELD NOTE / 02
Dedicated & GPUFoundation
VPS or dedicated: choose the boundary that fits
Understand what a physical machine changes, what it does not change, and when it becomes a useful step for your workload.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 03
Storage & recoveryFoundation
When NVMe makes a difference to your application
Distinguish capacity, latency and throughput so that a faster storage label answers a real application problem.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 04
Crypto paymentsFoundation
Crypto checkout and the limits of payment privacy
Understand the asset, network and confirmation journey, and protect the information that connects your project to a payment.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 05
Day-two operationsApplied
Build a backup you can actually restore
Choose a recovery target, protect an independent copy and practise the restoration before an incident forces the issue.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 06
Network engineeringFoundation
Bandwidth, port speed and transfer: read the full picture
Estimate the data your project moves and understand why a larger port is only one part of network performance.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 07
Privacy by designFoundation
Swiss data residency: map the whole service
A Swiss server location is a starting point. Map application data, backups, support access and external services before making a residency commitment.
6 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 08
Privacy by designFoundation
No KYC and privacy: understand the difference
Document-free onboarding addresses one collection point. Understand the other records, access paths and payment traces around a hosted project.
6 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 09
Day-two operationsApplied
A practical threat model for your hosted project
Map assets and trust boundaries, choose a few realistic failure scenarios and turn them into controls you can test.
6 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 10
Cloud & VPSApplied
Size VPS CPU and memory from a real workload
Build a memory budget, inspect contention and separate one busy thread from work that can use several virtual cores.
6 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 11
Day-two operationsApplied
Secure Windows RDP administration without losing access
Separate network reachability, authentication and privilege, then verify a recovery route before tightening remote access.
6 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 12
Day-two operationsApplied
A Linux VPS hardening baseline you can maintain
Secure administration, expose only required services and establish updates and recovery without locking yourself out.
6 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 13
Storage & recoveryAdvanced
Measure NVMe performance without misleading yourself
Define the I/O pattern, control cache effects and inspect latency distributions before drawing an application conclusion from a disk test.
6 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 14
Dedicated & GPUAdvanced
Build a GPU VRAM budget before choosing hardware
Account for weights, activations, caches and temporary buffers, then test the peak workload rather than the model file alone.
6 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 15
Dedicated & GPUApplied
A dedicated-server migration runbook that protects the data
Rehearse the move, establish a consistent data boundary and define what rollback means after the new system accepts writes.
6 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 16
Web & onionFoundation
Web hosting or a VPS: choose the work you want to own
Compare application requirements, control and maintenance responsibilities rather than treating a VPS as the automatic next step for every website.
6 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 17
Day-two operationsApplied
Turn RPO and RTO into a recovery budget you can test
Translate acceptable data loss and interruption into a timed recovery plan, with dependencies, restore capacity and a measurable exercise.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 18
Storage & recoveryApplied
Snapshots and backups: choose the failure you need to survive
Compare recovery points, failure boundaries and application consistency instead of assuming a snapshot and an independent backup provide the same protection.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 19
Storage & recoveryFoundation
Object, file or block storage: choose the interface your application needs
Distinguish storage interfaces, access semantics and operational responsibilities before turning a capacity requirement into an application architecture.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 20
Network engineeringAdvanced
Size a transfer with latency, concurrency and throughput measurements
Build a repeatable transfer model using payload volume, delivery windows and round-trip time, then test it without confusing a port label with useful throughput.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 21
Network engineeringAdvanced
Plan a 40, 100 or 200 Gbps origin as a complete system
Translate large port classes into storage, CPU, concurrency and operational questions before selecting a high-volume distribution configuration.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 22
Web & onionApplied
A domain, DNS and TLS cutover runbook for a new server
Prepare hostname routing, certificates and rollback together so that a migration changes the server without breaking the site's identity or secure connections.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 23
Web & onionApplied
Publish an onion service without overlooking the application
Plan a legitimate onion publication with controlled backend exposure, careful content review, service-key recovery and an explicit audience-access model.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 24
Crypto paymentsFoundation
Choose the asset and network before preparing a crypto payment
Read a payment route as a complete asset-and-network pair, then verify invoice instructions, token identity and the amount delivered before authorising a transfer.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 25
Crypto paymentsAdvanced
From detected transaction to reconciled order: confirmations and reorgs
Design payment states around verified chain evidence, explicit acceptance rules and unambiguous order association rather than a browser claim that funds were sent.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 26
Day-two operationsApplied
Build monitoring that leads to a useful incident response
Connect application symptoms, actionable alerts and a small response playbook so that an operator can make clear decisions when a service degrades.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 27
Cloud & VPSApplied
Give your AI workers a bounded place to run
Separate model inference from orchestration, size the actual worker and limit what its tools can change before putting an AI workflow on a server.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 28
Web & onionApplied
Choose a hosting operating model before choosing a cloud
Compare shared hosting, a VPS, dedicated hardware and large cloud platforms through responsibility, recovery, dependencies and the complete operating budget.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 29
Network engineeringFoundation
Choose a traffic path: server, tunnel or proxy
Understand what a VPS, VPN and proxy each change, then select routing, protocols and operating responsibilities from the connection you actually need.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 30
Cloud & VPSFoundation
Understand the machine boundary behind your VPS
Read KVM, virtual hardware, containers and dedicated servers as operating boundaries, then maintain the shell and services inside the boundary you choose.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 31
Network engineeringFoundation
Plan addresses and DNS as parts of your deployment
Separate public, private, static and dedicated addresses, then map forward DNS, reverse DNS and TLS to the parties that can configure them.
4 min readRead the guide
FIELD NOTE / 32
Web & onionApplied
Separate your public web edge from the application
Give the web server, reverse proxy and application distinct responsibilities, with deliberate origin access, TLS, request limits and an incident path.
4 min readRead the guide
No guides match this search.
Try a broader phrase or clear your filters to explore every discipline.
FOLLOW A THREADKnowledge that
Knowledge that
builds on itself.
A purposeful route through the library. Start with the foundations, then connect the operational details.
Launch your first workload
Choose resources, prepare the environment and put a site online.
- How to choose a VPS without guessing
- Build a backup you can actually restore
- Web hosting or a VPS: choose the work you want to own
Design for confidentiality
Understand data location, exposure and the payment trail.
- Swiss data residency: map the whole service
- Crypto checkout and the limits of payment privacy
- Web hosting or a VPS: choose the work you want to own
Scale without guessing
Connect physical capacity, networking and storage behaviour.
- VPS or dedicated: choose the boundary that fits
- Bandwidth, port speed and transfer: read the full picture
- When NVMe makes a difference to your application
Prepare for the unexpected
Plan recovery, secure access and test the way back.
- When NVMe makes a difference to your application
- Build a backup you can actually restore
- How to choose a VPS without guessing
THE DECISION WORKBENCHTurn assumptions
Turn assumptions
into numbers.
Two small planning tools. Calculations are illustrative, with their assumptions visible.
PLAINLY EXPLAINEDThe language
The language
of infrastructure.
No unexplained acronyms. A compact reference for the concepts you will encounter in these guides.
vCPU+
A virtual processor allocated to a virtual machine. It describes a scheduling resource, not a guaranteed physical core.
KVM+
Linux kernel virtualization used to run isolated virtual machines with their own operating systems.
NVMe+
A storage protocol designed for flash devices over PCIe. Application performance still depends on the workload and configuration.
VRAM+
Memory on a GPU. Model weights, activations, batch size and runtime overhead all consume it.
RPO+
Recovery point objective: the maximum data age your recovery plan is designed to tolerate.
RTO+
Recovery time objective: the time your recovery plan aims to take before a usable service returns.
Snapshot+
A point-in-time view of a system or volume. A copy in the same failure domain does not replace an independent backup.
Failure domain+
A shared dependency whose failure can affect several resources at once, such as one host or storage system.
Gbps+
Gigabits per second. Divide by eight to get the theoretical decimal gigabytes per second before overhead.
Throughput+
The useful rate actually achieved by an application. It can be much lower than a network port’s line rate.
Latency+
Time spent waiting for an operation or response. Lower latency can matter more than peak bandwidth for interactive work.
IOPS+
Input/output operations per second. It is meaningful only alongside block size, queue depth and latency.
TLS+
Transport Layer Security protects data in transit between endpoints that successfully authenticate and negotiate encryption.
Onion service+
A service reached through Tor using an onion address, with different reachability and exposure properties from a public website.
No KYC+
An onboarding model that does not request identity-verification documents. It does not describe every data flow or guarantee anonymity.
Data residency+
Where specified data is stored or processed. It should be mapped across the main system, backups and other service providers.
Threat model+
A description of the assets, adversaries, entry points and failure scenarios a security design needs to address.
Confirmation+
Evidence that a transaction has been included in a blockchain. Its operational meaning differs between networks.
Finality+
The point at which a transaction is treated as irreversible under a network’s consensus rules and the recipient’s policy.
Reorganisation+
A change in a blockchain’s accepted history that can affect transactions previously seen in a block.
OUR EDITORIAL APPROACHUseful knowledge
Useful knowledge
has a foundation.
Start with the decision.
Each guide explains a concrete infrastructure choice, then gives you a checklist to turn it into a next step.
Show the source.
Primary documentation sits beside the guidance. Follow it for implementation details and version-specific behaviour.
Keep the boundaries clear.
Examples are labelled. Architecture advice is separated from service specifications, availability and contractual conditions.
BEFORE YOU GO DEEPER
A few useful answers.
Where should I start?+
Choose a learning path for a connected introduction, or search for the exact decision you need to make. The sizing guide is a useful first step before comparing configurations.
Are these guides specific to SwissOctet?+
The engineering principles apply broadly. Related infrastructure links connect each guide to SwissOctet’s Swiss catalogue; a guide is not a promise of availability or measured performance.
How are the guides sourced?+
Each guide links to primary documentation and distinguishes engineering principles from product-specific conditions. Check the linked documentation before implementing version-dependent settings.
Can I save or share an article?+
Save a guide to this browser, copy its direct link, or download its deployment checklist. Saved guides do not require an account and are not synchronised between devices.
Does Swiss location guarantee anonymity?+
Location is one part of a privacy design. Identity documents, account data, payment records, service logs, backups and your application all need separate consideration.
What should I verify before deploying?+
Check the actual configuration, network limits, backup and restore process, operating-system support, access controls and payment instructions. Use a guide’s checklist to turn assumptions into verification steps.
Understand it.
Then build it.
Put the principles to work with infrastructure located in Switzerland.
Explore Swiss infrastructure