Category: Infrastructure / Automation Difficulty: Medium Setup time: 30-60 minutes Last tested: January 2025

THE PROBLEM

I wanted to run automated scripts and bots. Alerts, scrapers, automations - things that need to run constantly.

But I couldn't have my computer open all day.

My Mac needs to sleep. I need to close it, move around, use it for other things. I can't dedicate my personal machine to running scripts 24/7.

If my computer is off, the automation stops. If I close my laptop, no more alerts.

THE SOLUTION: VPS

VPS stands for Virtual Private Server.

Cloud companies like Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean - they provide you with a device in their servers. You get:

• An IP address
• A machine that runs 24/7
• Your own space, memory, processing power
• Something that never sleeps

It's like having a computer in the cloud that's always on. You don't use your own Mac, your own memory, your own electricity. You use theirs.

WHAT I ACTUALLY DID

I needed to run automation alerts:

• Alerts via email