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View Full Version : Why isn't the DF Community Interested in the Cloud?



Ianv
10-Jun-2017, 08:25 PM
One of the uses for these forums is to allow DAW to get feedback on the priorities Developers have for DF enhancements. Significant notice is taken of the support for individual Posts and even whole Forums. Given that, after an initial small flurry, this Forum has settled down to one new post a quarter, the only valid conclusion is that there is very little interest. Yet my own experience makes me certain that:

DF applications are very well suited to Cloud deployment
For any business which has to outsource most or all of its IT support, the Cloud offers a much cheaper, more reliable, more secure, faster and more scaleable solution than on-premises servers.


Frankly, I cannot see why any developer working with such clients isn't recommending and implementing Cloud based solutions.

Right now, every developer has to re-invent the wheel as far as DF in the Cloud is concerned. Certainly, DAW has a $120 CD you can use to set up a development system in the Cloud. Really DAW, how long does it take a newbie to the Cloud to work out how to use Amazon CLI to get the image up there? At the very least, there should be a free public AMI with at least the Personal edition (which avoids AWS costs), DR and a Web-Server installed. Who knows, this might even encourage new developers into the community.

When you move to the Cloud, you are not only spinning up a server, you are creating a whole IT infrastructure which will almost certainly include a Terminal Server (or whatever MS calls it on a particular day), a data server, Web-Server, secure VPN access, RDP access, a Domain connection, Email, backup strategies (including possibly to the premises) AV etc.

We desperately need a Blog covering these matters so any Developer can quickly get up to speed.
Alternatively, those of us who are using the Cloud should start posting here about the various ways of setting up Cloud IT infrastructure for DF systems so that newcomers to the Cloud understand the issues and have some guidance.

It is also my opinion that Web-based Help is long overdue and is undoubtedly holding the product back in the market place.
Ian

Michael Mullan
11-Jun-2017, 01:00 PM
+1 I would really like to see some case studies of people who have actually done this already. With cost breakdowns and justifications

chuckatkinson
12-Jun-2017, 07:16 AM
I think most already know I have been one the earliest and biggest proponent of Cloud particularly AWS. And lobbied successfully for the Cloud forum section. And during my time with DAW i put together the AWS AMI.

IMHO the lack of forum postings and also interest from the developer community is that once the shiny "new" label wore off "THE CLOUD" everyone realized it was just remote computing and not that hard. Now granted Amazon has been really piling on some important and interesting services in their environment.

For me personally I am too busy right now to spend the time needed to do cost breakdowns and justifications in a forum posting.

Just know I have done some rather large systems for client on AWS and they were very successful and made the customers happy.

But be prepared and understand it's far from free and big systems tend to be on the expensive side. And also know expensive is hard to measure over time. Just ask Delta airlines how expensive a missing UPS backup costs. Or even British Airways from last week's outage.

DaveR
15-Jun-2017, 09:34 AM
With a lot of help from Chuck and Mike Starzen I have a working demo of my webapp on an EC2 instance, but I don't think either of them would think me unfair to say they couldn't help with the whole process (especially as I started with the intention of running it on Godaddy) :cool:

The biggest part of the learning curve for me was finding which AWS components contain the bits you need.