The Blockchain train has been gathering steam the past ten years and it’s showing no signs of stopping. Startups taking advantage of the technology that pop up at every corner of the world, all trying to see how far they can push the boundaries of a decentralized society.
Cloud Computing is the art of delivering standard computing services such as servers, storage, databases and networking over the Internet. As an example, if you wanted to add more storage space to your network, instead of buying some hard drives for a local server, you’d connect everyone to a cloud computing resource such as Google Drive.
It really is that simple. Instead of building local infrastructure you use resources sourced from the Internet. That is all cloud computing is.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the largest cloud hosting and cloud computing provider on the market. It offers a scalable environment where you can host your websites and other web services in the cloud. There are many components to AWS ranging from DNS Management (Route 53), Virtual Servers (EC2 and Lightsail), and even Internet of Things and machine learning services.
For those interested in using AWS as a hosting platform, there are some ways you can connect the different AWS services to each. As an example, you might use Route 53 to manage your DNS, run a web server on an EC2 virtual machine, and provide a database to that virtual machine via an Amazon Aurora database. You can also use AWS to support websites running outside of AWS, for example, you might connect a database in AWS to a dedicated server running WordPress.
There are a few other major cloud computing services out there. Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure being the two largest of AWS’s competitors. Microsoft Azure focuses on more Microsoft centric technologies and has carved out a niche there. The Google Cloud Platform is the third largest and offers similar technology services. All three services offer some form of trial or free tier of service.
There are many smaller cloud computing providers. Some of the more well-known ones include Digital Ocean and Linode. They offer Virtual Private Server platforms as well with all of the feature most users need. You can often find better pricing on VPS’s from the smaller services than you can the larger services like AWS, but you may miss out on some of the higher-end features AWS or Google Cloud offers. If you don’t use those features, it's not a significant loss.
One way to get started in cloud computing is to take advantage of a Free Tier account on Amazon Web Services. The free tier account is an excellent way to use the tools provided by AWS. Using an Amazon Free Tier account, you can accomplish even complex tasks such as launch a Wordpress site running on Ubuntu Linux using an EC2 instance. You can use Lighsail to launch a pre-configured server and web applications. Some free tier services expire after one year or are only free if you use smaller sized server instances.
Once you have a free tier account look into getting AWS certified. An AWS Cloud Practitioner certification is the entry-level certification and starting to work towards it will help you become familiar with the fundamentals of cloud computing in general.
Not to be outdone, Microsoft offers a 12 month trial of their Azure service as well. As part of the trial, you get a small service credit as well. Many of the services offered in Azure mirror what you see in AWS, but there isn’t as much variety in services. Surprisingly even though this is a Microsoft oriented service, they still make it easy to launch Linux virtual machines and use technologies such as Kubernetes.
The Google Computing Platform is the smallest of the larger services in the market. Their free service includes many products such as virtual private server instances in their always free offering that are only free for 12 months with Azure or AWS. In addition to this, you get a $300 credit towards any GPC service.
Smaller Cloud Computing providers such as FastComet and CloudWays have their niches in the cloud computing market. While Amazon is a clear leader with Microsoft and Google coming in at two and three, it’s hard to imagine where other players fit in. CloudWays as an example resells Digital Ocean’s cloud services but adds management as a service. As great as AWS, Azure, and the Google Cloud Platform are you don’t get the personalized touch regarding the support that you do from smaller providers. That’s true in dedicated hosting just as its true in the world of cloud computing.
That is the cloud computing field. AWS is by far the most widely used cloud computing platform and it by far offers the most services. That doesn’t necessarily make it the correct option for you. If you want GSuite integration maybe Google’s Cloud Platform is a better pick.
If you need managed services a smaller provider such as CloudWays may fit the bill. The key as with any platform, is to choose the platform which offers the services you need at the best price point. You can always sacrifice features you don’t need for a smaller bill.
Fragmentation in the IDE Marketplace: Java, PHP, Python, C/C++, Groovy, HTML 5, & Visual Basic
The Apache Foundation released NetBeans version 10.0 in December of 2018, a complete Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Java, PHP, HTML 5, CSS, JavaScript, & Groovy programming. The NetBeans project began at Sun Microsystems as a code editor & programming environment for Java. Oracle acquired the project as part of the Sun merger and subsequently donated it to the Apache Foundation for incubation or further development on open source community foundations. NetBeans 10 supports PHP 7.3 & MySQL database installation on Windows desktops for web/mobile application programming in sandbox environments. Web developers working with PHP scripts to build new custom themes and modules for CMS platforms or ecommerce stores will appreciate the functionality of NetBeans. The NetBeans 10 IDE has an object-oriented design with a vast marketplace of third-party plugins that extend the framework, although not all are currently compatible with version 10. In the IDE sector, NetBeans competes with Eclipse, JetBrains PHP Storm (IntelliJ Idea), Zend Studio, & other solutions for PHP application development, while Visual Studio, PyCharm, & Sublime Text are more popular with Python, C/C++, Visual Basic, & ASP.Net programmers.
Google V8 JavaScript Runtime Engine + TypeScript: Improvements on Node.js Server
The Node.js web server standard was introduced in 2009 by Ryan Dahl and has subsequently become a major aspect of contemporary JavaScript development platforms. Apache web servers function on the basis of threaded processes, whereas Node.js servers operate with event loops. With many simultaneous users, threaded concurrency becomes "leaky" on Apache, while Node.js servers use callbacks to eliminate wait times for extremely fast concurrency rates. JavaScript operates by design on the basis of event loops which Dahl transcribed into a server-side runtime environment to build a web server with a non-blocking I/O request processing structure. This allows Node.js application programmers to script highly concurrent programs on the same hardware that stream data at faster rates while also supporting TCP, DNS, & HTTP without Apache. The use of chunked requests/responses, keep-alive functions, and familiar APIs that operate in a platform independent manner has led to the success of Node.js as a web server standard, although it also includes a Python dependency. Nearly 10 years later, Dahl has deconstructed the mistakes still present in Node.js to relaunch a new platform written in Rust/Go that works with TypeScript & the Google V8 runtime engine in a secure sandbox environment.
AWS CEO Andy Jassy & CTO Werner Vogels Headline Premiere Cloud Industry Event
Last month AWS held the 7th annual re:Invent conference in Las Vegas with 50,000 attendees &100,000+ more tuning in on live stream. The conference featured over 2,100 break-out sessions, seminars, & presentations. Twelve & a half years after the launch of AWS, the company has millions of active hosting customers in startup companies, enterprise corporations, retail, small business, & the public sector. Major startups who build on AWS are AirBNB, Pinterest, & Stripe. In financial services, AWS powers Goldman Sachs, Capital One, & Barclays in cloud data center operations. AWS is the preferred service provider for Fortune 500 companies like J&J, GE, Shell, BP, Halliburton, Netflix, Disney, Fox & Expedia. AWS dominates every vertical in enterprise with a $27 billion revenue run rate and 46% YoY growth. AWS currently holds a 52% total share of the cloud market worldwide with main competitors Google, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, & Ali Baba. AWS also inspires a broad ecosystem which includes companies like Infosys, Acquia, Adobe, Accenture, WorkDay, VMware, & Rackspace. Customers want access to widest range of tools for software development when building web/mobile applications, where AWS has the most options for programmers. Industry competitors are currently chasing & imitating AWS cloud hosting services w/out being able to offer the same platform capabilities.
