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Digital Literacy

Rodney Wilson
Rodney Wilson
2,300 Points

Cloud Hosting, is it the best route to take for a first time developer?

If you create an app and or website that needs to store data from the user but can't afford tons of servers, is cloud hosting the way to go and does cloud hosting hosts the back end programming you create? And if so, how does that work?

Is it possible for the cloud hosting company to steal any of the user data from your app if that data is on their servers? If you want to put ads in your app/website, is it possible to do that if you're using a cloud hosting site?

4 Answers

Sue Dough
Sue Dough
35,800 Points

Hi Rodney,

Most websites don't need tons of servers. Additionally that is a great problem to have and it doesn't make any sense to worry about it until you get started. You can handle millions of page views with an optimized site on 1 good server with CDN/Caching. You may quickly find out the app you create gets no traffic! Sad huh? It happens to most websites. Or it could take off. Things usually take at least a few months to really start getting big traffic. You'll end up wasting a lot of money/energy with all the cloud scale as you go services if your app doesn't take off. It really doesn't make financial sense when most apps start and you can put it on a shared server for a few bucks then eventually move to a VPS.

Most cloud host allow you to run pretty much any application. The front end and back end part is up to you. They simply just give you scalable infrastructure. You can use it as how you best see fit. The same thing with the ads. That is up to you to put the ads etc. You can do what you choose.

Yes the cloud hosting company will have access to all your data. Any hosting company will. Scary huh? Its up to the company you choose to not abuse that privilege. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Your pretty much screwed any route you take in that aspect. You could eventually get your own servers and build your own infrastructure. You could store your own data. Be careful what servers you buy if your really worried.

I don't think stealing your data and having a bunch of servers is good to worry about before the application is even up. Your worrying about things that may never even happen. Build build build.

Rodney Wilson
Rodney Wilson
2,300 Points

Thanks for the reply, ghost code. And yeah I am realistic that the app I create could garner no real traffic. I just really want to make sure I am on the right path to learning what I need to learn and not wasting time on the other stuff.

Thanks for the tip on going with a shared server. So when you get an app on the App Store or Google Apps, are your apps still communicating with the shared server(s) you set up or is it handled by whatever storefront your app is at?

Justin Black
Justin Black
24,793 Points

As a side note, you can actually get your own VPS for as little as 5 dollars a month. Upside is more control, downside is you have to configure it yourself.. This is what I do ( But I do server admin for a living )

Jonathan Grieve
MOD
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,253 Points

Anyone in the know about this who might be able to help? :-)

Rodney Wilson
Rodney Wilson
2,300 Points

lol thanks Jonathan. I think it would be a good idea for Team Treehouse to have a digital literacy course centered around the process of launching an app/web app/website. All the way from picking the write languages to learn for your needs all the way to basic understanding of servers and the different types of hosting options out there and how they all work.

My biggest fear is going through the process of learning different languages only to find out months later that I should of been learning other languages...

Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,253 Points

Sorry I couldn't help you with anything substantial :)

But I think this is a great idea.

I'm only on my phone at the moment but I know that the leader of the DL topic, Joy Kesten is doing planning for future courses. You can drop her an email to make a request for it, joy@teamtreehouse.com.

Good luck :)

Joy Kesten
Joy Kesten
Treehouse Guest Teacher

Hi y'all! Thanks for the suggestion, I added to to the trello board, feel free to vote on what you want to see in the coming courses :)

https://trello.com/b/ldtkvuS8/treehouse-digital-literacy-content-roadmap

Rodney Wilson
Rodney Wilson
2,300 Points

Jonathan Grieve, thanks for suggesting these course ideas to Joy Kesten. And thank you Joy Kesten for actually responding. Wasn't expecting that. I will definitely be voting in the link you posted.

Joy Kesten
Joy Kesten
Treehouse Guest Teacher

My pleasure! We do what we can :)

AR Ehsan
AR Ehsan
7,912 Points

Thanks! For the suggestions! All