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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

Facebook

• 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

Twitter

• 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 • ed@ltech.com