Cloud Development with Azure and AWS
Cloud computing is the buzzword of the moment, but what's it all about?
Well, actually, everyone has their own opinion about this, but I think the key thing is quite straightforward.
Basically, 'the cloud' is just a huge computing resource which you can rent bits of. You can rent a tiny bit for rather less than a normal hosting service.
You can rent the equivalent of hundreds of computers and hard discs when you need them and stop renting them the minute you don't.
It's like having a warehouse with an infinitely stretchable back wall!
What can you do with a cloud?
If you have an idea for a service where you don't know what the volumes will be or where the demand might be highly seasonal, then cloud development can be a good option.
If you have a requirement where the data needs might grow very large, then clouds like Microsoft's Azure or Amazon Web Services allow you to develop good solutions.
If you have systems which need to do huge amounts of processing from time to time, then offload the processing to a cloud service!
Is it safe?
The simple answer is yes. No I wouldn't necessarily try and run a bank from a cloud service, but Cloud Datacenters are no more unsafe than any other datacenter.
So if you already outsource your Web Site or Servers, then you will not be increasing your risk.
Is development for clouds expensive?
Cloud systems like Microsoft Azure and AWS have now become quite mature and the tools for development are now comparable to traditional technologies.
Our preference is the Microsoft Azure platform which operates in a very similar way to a standard windows system.
There are some differences, of course, but a new development aimed at the Azure cloud should be comparable in price to a traditional Windows Web system or service
An example of Cloud Development with Azure
One system we've developed migrates the storage and download of media from hosted services to the Azure cloud service.
The main motivation for this is that the data storage from our client's hosting service, simply is not expandable in a cost effective fashion.
Next we'll be moving the order processing web site to the cloud and this will further reduce costs.
And if our client has a really bumper Christmas, we can add a few extra download machines for a month and stop using them when demand dies down.
So if you have a flexible and scalable resource for your software products,
contact us and we can discuss how we can help you.