I host some of my own servers at home and some in the cloud. The cloud is often cheaper (than cost per month of buying dedicated hardware) so I tend to use it for things which aren't mission critical.
Most of the risks are similar but there are a few extra ones like:
- Set your bios to automatically turn on hardware after a power outage.
- Set the OS to suppress/skip errors when booting (you don't want the OS prompting for manual intervention when booting).
- Set whatever applications you need to autostart on boot.
- Auto mount whatever disks you need mounted on reboot.
- Use a hypervisor so that software updates don't require lots of downtime.
- Buy a high quality router.
- Power efficiency is important when choosing hardware. You don't want an enormous electric bill.
- Automate and verify OFF SITE backups. If someone steals your server or burns down your building then you'll be unhappy without an off site backup.
- If you have fire sprinklers you'll want to keep a canopy over the hardware. If you have flooding problems you'll want the hardware to be raised off of the floor.