About a year ago, I transitioned my local development environment to an inexpensive VPS and haven't looked back.

The main advantage to this setup is that you can literally work from anywhere on any device assuming you have an internet connection.

• Have access to a desktop or laptop browser? Tools like Codeanywhere or Cloud9 have you covered.
• Have an iOS device? Coda has an excellent app.
• Familiar with Vim? You’ll just need an SSH connection to your VPS.

Considerations for such a setup:

• Terminal: Codeanywhere, Cloud9, and Coda all all have terminals built in so no worries there. If you’re using Vim you are already connecting through a terminal.
• Backups: should be taken off-site the same as you would for your local machine.
• Version control: works the same as you would expect on your local machine.

There are some downsides to using a VPS for development:

• Requires an internet connection so you will be unable to work if you are offline.
• None of the tools mentioned above compare to full fledged IDEs but they have come a long way.
• VPS(s) aren’t free but the cost is nominal starting at about $5 / month.

This setup isn’t for everyone but it may work for you especially if you frequently find yourself in situations where you don’t have access to your local dev environment.