ed laczynski
TRANSCRIPT
Leveraging the Cloud for Social Media
Ed LaczynskiLTech
5/25/2010
• Cloud 101• The Big 4 • Showcase• Field Notes• Q&A
Cloud 101
• 8 confusing definitions on google• “massively scalable capabilities provided as a
service on the Internet”– Extreme programmability through open APIs– Embrace standards– Disruptive and flexible pricing
• Startup friendly• “Easy” to use• Map http://www.appirio.com/ecosystem/
Business View
• Gartner - $150B by 2013• Start-ups love it -
http://leanstartup.pbworks.com
• VC’s love it - Good adjective to have.
“revolutionary from business model perspective, creating a multi-year investment opportunity” – Lazard Capital (Nov 2009)
Know your aaS’s • IaaS - Infrastructure
– Closest “to the metal.” Raw server power.
• PaaS - Platform– Structured. Turnkey.
• SaaS – Software and API– Hundreds of services.
Building blocks.
Infrastructure Clouds
• Amazon Web Services
• Terramark• Rackspace• Media Temple• Microsoft Azure• Google Storage• Akamai
• IT focused• Put anything you
want on them• Priced on utility
basis• Low-level
services
0-5000 servers in 5 days
Platform Clouds
• Google AppEngine
• Force.com• EngineYard• Joyent• Azure
• Developer focused
• Language restricted
• Instrumentation included
• Higher-level
Software Clouds
• Salesforce.com• Google Apps• Mailchimp• Sendgrid• APIs and Toolkits
– “The Web”
• Business user focused
• Configuration restricted
• API and mashup friendly
APIs and Toolkits
• Facebook• Twitter• OpenSocial• OAuth and OpenID• RSS and MRSS Feeds
What does that mean for social apps?
• Cloud = Low Startup Cost and Agility• Infrastructure
– If your app is successful, you’ll need to use IaaS at some point.
• Platform– If your app meets certain use cases, you’ll want to
consider PaaS• Software
– Your app will almost certainly use SaaS / API at some level.
Your Social App =(Infrastructure AND/OR
Platform Services)+
Software and API Services
The Big 4
• Google• Platform, API, and some infrastructure
– OpenSocial / Google Accounts– Google Apps Marketplace– Google AppEngine– Google Buzz– Android
• http://code.google.com
Amazon
• Amazon Web Services• Infrastructure Focus
– EC2– S3 and Cloud Front– Powers platforms and important SaaS vendors
• Amazon Affiliates and related APIs• Most widely used public infrastructure cloud• http://amazon.com/aws
• Platform (FBML) and API• World-class API and integration capabilities• Thousands of apps, many huge successes in
their own rights– Zynga – Runs on Amazon EC2 ($1B+ valuation)
• Cloud innovator: Built on cloud power and open source
• http://developers.facebook.com
• Clean and well written API• Social networking leader
– Millions of users– Along with Facebook, great place to incubate new
apps to gain reach– http://dev.twitter.com/
Showcase
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com - great social media and cloud integration
• Animoto – http://www.animoto.com• EngineYard - http://www.engineyard.com
– http://www.gogosend.com launch• TweetDeck
Field Notes
Social Media Cloud Ideas
• Store images on Amazon S3• Run your Rails app on EngineYard• Connect your users to Facebook • Run your customer support with ZenDesk.com• Search twitter with Twitter Search API• Build a web scraper and run it on Amazon• Store your data on an Amazon RDS Database• Build a great social app, and add an open API.
What (software dev) platform?
• For social media apps, hard to beat Ruby on Rails.– Pathable – used for this conference!– Twitter– iLike– Lots more http://rubyonrails.org/applications
• Why?– Amazing developer community– Really, really, really powerful plugins and “gems”
– PHP also great option. Java for Android apps.
Where should I deploy?
• Ruby on Rails? Engine Yard or Joyent, unless you have really spot on IT guys, then maybe directly to Amazon
• Existing Java app? Amazon, Rackspace, Terramark are all good. They support Windows/.NET too.
• PHP can be used anywhere. Media Temple is a good option here.
• Wherever it is, make sure you understand the pricing and the lock-in.
When not to deploy to cloud?
• When you have a “small” app with limited reach (internal business app).
• When you have to be behind a corporate firewall (possible but complicated).
• If you own a datacenter already with a large sunk cost (you won’t need it yet).
Pitfalls to avoid
• I want to write my own <common business function>
• I want to use <non-open source language/platform>
• My friend told me that <some database other than MySql> is the best.
• I can host this myself on <some cheap $5/mo webhosting provider>.
Thanks!
Ed Laczynski
• http://twitter.com/edla• http://techcloud.com• http://www.ltech.com• LinkedIn • [email protected]