Wild Cloud is the Civil Society Technology Foundation’s reference implementation for self-hosted “cloud” infrastructure. This project empowers individuals, communities, and organizations to run their own digital services without dependency on centralized corporate platforms.
When released later this year, Wild Cloud will become a complete, accessible solution for operating essential digital services on infrastructure you control. It combines carefully selected open-source components into a cohesive system providing the functionality needed for self-hosted cloud services.
By deploying Wild Cloud, individuals, communities, and organizations can:
- Host their own cloud services.
- Maintain full control over their data and communications.
- Reduce or eliminate dependencies on surveillance-based platforms.
- Build technical capacity.
- Participate in a community of practice around independent infrastructure.
The Wild Cloud project aims to start you with a simple self-hosted cloud solution that gets you set up quickly and lets you easily manage your cloud. However, it is a full solution. None of the technical foundations are stripped away. You can go deeper and extend your cloud how you see fit.
Philosophy #
Wild Cloud embodies the Civil Society Technology Foundation’s core principles, which include:
- Self-determination by Design: Users control their data and computing environment.
- Open Source, Always: All components are free to use, study, modify, and share.
- Self-Hosting Infrastructure: Direct control reduces dependency and vulnerability.
- Transparent Governance: All components have clear, accountable governance.
- Practical Autonomy: Infrastructure that users can understand and maintain.
By providing this reference implementation, we demonstrate that digital self-determination is not merely theoretical but practically achievable with current technology and modest resources.
Architecture #
Wild Cloud allows individuals, communities, and organizations (cloud operators) to install and manage a full, standard, Kubernetes cluster made of a few or many computers on their own premises. Kubernetes manages much of the complexity of maintaining the health of your cloud and managing the applications deployed in it. The Wild Cloud project provides a set of reference “stacks” that can be deployed on this Kubernetes cluster. These stacks combine best-of-breed open source software applications to enable productivity, communication, collaboration, and intelligence applications and more.
Getting Started #
The Wild Cloud project is currently being developed, in the open, on GitHub.
Join the Community #
The Wild Cloud project is developed and supported by a community of practitioners. To join the community or learn more, visit the Wild Cloud website.