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January 11, 2010
Cloud computing - A side by side comparison
Web application deployment has changed substantially throughout the years. Once the domain of niche market players or 'hosting providers' that allowed you to park content on the web, this space has grown considerably, sparking the interest of players like Google, Microsoft and Amazon.
These larger companies are setting the stage to change not only how you deploy web applications, but also how you design them and how you pay for their presence on the web. All of which has given way to 'platforms' that scale and adapt more easily, than the services offered by the 'hosting providers' of yesteryear.
But what are the benefits of such 'platforms' or 'cloud computing platforms' as they are now called ? In what ways are the offerings made by Google, Microsoft and Amazon in this space different ? This entry contains more details, including an extensive 6 page Reference Card I recently wrote on the topic.
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Paying only what a web application consumes at a very granular level -- in terms of CPU, bandwidth and memory -- is one of the more obvious benefits of adopting a 'cloud computing platform' from the likes of Google, Microsoft and Amazon.
In order to entice users to adopt a particular cloud computing platform, some providers also offer free resource quotas, effectively reducing the hosting costs of small web applications to zero.
Another important factor in adopting a cloud computing platform is related to data storage technology. Though the data tier in most web applications is delegated to Relational Database(RDBMS) technology, the majority of cloud computing platforms rely on alternate technologies that scale and work differently. In this sense, cloud computing platforms offer varying data storage technologies than those of RDBMS.
Other differing factors in the cloud computing platforms offered by Google, Microsoft and Amazon, include: tools, management and security characteristics. You can read more on these topics in this extensive Reference Card I wrote for DZone: http://refcardz.dzone.com/refcardz/getting-started-cloud
Update: Reader Nate Dudek wrote in to tell me that Microsoft Windows Azure can effectively support non-.NET platforms such as PHP, Perl & Ruby, using a "FastCGI Role". Nate keeps a Microsoft/ Windows Azure blog that you can read at http://www.caffeinedi.com/ .
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Posted by Daniel at January 11, 2010 2:08 PM
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