Garage is a distributed storage solution, that automatically replicates your data on several servers. Garage takes into account the geographical location of servers, and ensures that copies of your data are located at different locations when possible for maximal redundancy, a unique feature in the landscape of distributed storage systems.

It has an S3-compatible API and can be used as a storage backend for things like NextCloud, Matrix, and Mastodon. It’s being built by a non-profit in France that is “working to promote self-hosting and small-scale hosting.” Why do they do this?

self-hosting means running our own hardware at home, and providing 24/7 Internet services from there. We have many reasons for doing this. One is because this is the only way we can truly control who has access to our data. Another one is that it helps us be aware of the physical substrate of which the Internet is made: making the Internet run has an environmental cost which we want to evaluate and keep under control. The physical hardware also gives us a sense of community, calling to mind all of the people that could currently be connected and making use of our services, and reminding us of the purpose for which we are doing this.