Check Your Web App into a Cloud Hotel
Cloud computing has taken over our planet. Expert knowledge of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform can get you a massive salary, no matter where you are located. It would also be fair to say that these giant cloud providers are the new “Too big to fail” companies , because if ,for instance AWS went down , a lot of the web applications that we use everyday would go down with it, because they live on AWS.
But , what is the cloud exactly ? Why is it in such demand? Here is a “explain it to me like I’m a five year old” version of what the cloud is.
Imagine you have decided to move to this really popular new city everyone is talking about. Let’s call it Webappton. Webappton is so popular, everyone and their aunt is trying to get there and try to live the dream. It’s like the way young aspiring actors look at Hollywood . But, real estate can be a really big issue here, just like in any popular city. In Webappton , you have two choices :
1. You can buy an apartment.
2. You can rent a room in one of Webappton’s famous Cloud Hotels.
The first choice is quite expensive, and frankly, it’s also a bit risky. Are you sure you are going to make it in Webappton? A lot of people are moving here, and not everybody is going to successful in this very competitive city. Even if you can afford it, the expensive purchase of a condo might destroy you financially if you fail to make it here.
The second choice definitely makes more sense nowadays. Let’s see why, and I’ll use the example of Webappton’s currently most famous hotel The AWS. (Just as a side note, you get pretty much the same quality of service at Azure or at GCP but I’ll stick to AWS because I know it best.)
The first thing you notice when you enter, is that it is very safe and secure. Had you bought an apartment , you would have to worry about burglars, and would be solely responsible had someone broken in. At the AWS , they guarantee no one will steal your stuff, and guess what, they have a great track record when it comes to security, and their IAM service allows you provide them a list of your friends, associates and family that are the only ones that can reach you in your room.
Next, you need to a place for all of your stuff. You brought quite a lot of stuff from your old home , and there isn’t so much space in your room. You have a lot of documents and books so you need to store them somewhere nearby. You also need some kind of storage for the things you need , but don’t use too often like your bicycle, winter tires etc. Guess what, at AWS you can rent all the room you need in their S3 storage room , and you only pay for exactly the square footage you need. They also know that the winter tires aren’t going to be used from April to October, so they put them in a special storage room called Glacier, which is even cheaper than S3 (although you need to give them 12 hours notice when you want to retrieve something from Glacier) .
Had you bought an apartment, you would have to rent storage across town, and you couldn’t really choose much, so you would probably have to overpay for extra unnecessary room that you don’t need. And not to mention that burglars could rob you there also.
Ok, you’ve moved in to the AWS, you have stored your luggage, now it is time to actually choose a room. They take you to the residential area of the hotel called EC2 . You can choose from a variety of rooms here, depending on your needs, and budget of course. You choose a medium room, and decide to throw a party for some friends that you already know in Webappton.
You make a list of attendees, and you realize that your hotel room isn’t nearly going to be comfortable for so many people. No worries! AWS has got you covered. They know that their guests sometimes like to throw parties and that a single room is too small. They allow you to rent as many rooms as you need, and only for the time you need. They don’t force you to rent for longer than the duration of the party. And they even have a special party manager called Mr. Kubernetes (he works at the other Cloud Hotels as well, and everyone loves him) who knows when to open more rooms as guests arrive, and when to start closing some unnecessary rooms when guests start leaving, so you won’t pay extra for rooms sitting empty. That is something you couldn’t imagine had you bought a condo. Either you would have to rent more condos for a whole month just for the party, or would try to fit one hundred people at your place , generating a horrible user experience for your guests.
They also have a great reception desk called Route 53 that tells all of your guests exactly where to find you. Let’s say some of your guests only know you by name, and not by hotel number. “Mr. Johnson? Oh, yes. He’s in room 222.11.5.38 . We’ll take you there immediately” . Had you rented an apartment in some shady neighborhood they would have to stop and ask your neighbors for instructions, and chances are they might even get lost (let’s forget that google maps exists for the sake of the analogy) .
Anyway, the party was a hit, and you are getting popular here in Webappton. A couple of days later, you have some friends over for dinner. Unexpectedly, just hours before they arrive, your electricity goes out . AWS to the rescue. They immediately give you a new room , exactly the same as the last. They move your stuff, and even replace the food that has gone bad in the fridge because of the outage. That is very thoughtful you say? Well , yes , they keep copies of everything so nothing is ever lost completely. And we all know that in a private building this is impossible. You are lucky if you find the superintendent by next Thursday.
One more important thing. Everybody hates renovating their house right? But, every once in a while you need to paint your walls , or god forbid replace old electrical and hydro installations in order for your place to be livable. Needless to say, the management at the AWS does all this for you. No more worrying about if this piece of furniture is compatible with this other piece or will my old leaking bathtub cause a flood in the place. ( This is supposed to be an analogy to regular software patches and updates , maybe its a bit vague) .
This all sounds great so far , right? But be aware, the minute you check in, they will ask you to provide a credit card. So choose wisely what kind of service you need, so you don’t get a headache at the end of the month. However , they do offer an alarm service called CloudWatch to warn you if you have exceeded the limits you have set for yourself. So , as long as you haven’t thrown a party for tens of thousands of guests all ordering Moet by the minute and gone to sleep, you don’t need to worry too much. And if the sad day comes when you decide you haven’t got what it takes to survive in Webappton, you can leave immediately without having to sell your condo at a grossly underrated price. But, this wont happen right, because you have an idea for an app that no one has thought of yet!
Webappton is growing by the minute. It is the place to be in the 21st century. The richest and most powerful people on earth are all residents of Webappton, and some of the most powerful citizens of Webappton are the owners and CEOs of the Cloud Hotels. So , getting a good knowledge of the services these empires provide is definitely a good investment. And if you are aspiring to move to Webappton, then I don’t even need to tell you about their significance.
Thanks for reading!
