Social Media Applications and Cloud Computing
The new information era belongs to social media. Facebook and Twitter have become entwined in our daily lives, with Google hot on their heels to get in the game as well. The backbone of most prominent social media services is the cloud. But why exactly is cloud technology so important to social media?
Rapid, instant, scaling
This is perhaps the most important factor, one which has allowed for the creation of so many social media sites. One must remember that all the sites which are popular today actually started off on a very small scale. Mark Zuckerberg and friends launched Facebook from his dorm room. But the reason they could expand and scale was cloud computing technology.
Scaling from one server to thousands of server instances is a must for success. If you wish to do this with traditional infrastructure, you are certain to fail, not to mention the capital expenditure involved in such massive operations.
Requirement of massive amount of storage
Another problem faced by social media companies is the requirements for data storage. Users upload three million photographs a day on Facebook on average. You can imagine the amount of storage space required to hold such amounts of data. This article further explains the issues faced by Facebook in this area.
Minimum required support staff
Starting small is the norm in social media circles. Generally, these are one-man shows which get converted into mega sites. Unfortunately, only one out of a thousand such sites survive to make it big. Therefore, there is a need to work with fewer resources. Technical staff, like server administrators require a lot funds. Working with less staff is a necessity.
Cloud computing reduces the required technical support staff to a minimum, releasing much needed resources for other activities. My previous post has more information on this topic, so be sure to check it out.
You can also learn more about setup services from GMO cloud, which will reduce the cost of cloud implementation.
Cost considerations
Cloud services allow for phenomenal savings in comparison to a traditional datacenter setup. The ‘pay as you go’ model suits small social media sites, which can expand and scale, without bothering about concomitant expenses.
Conclusion
Overall, the marriage between social media sites and cloud computing is made in heaven. Entrepreneurs, with limited resources, can now dream to own their own social media sites and hope to become czars of this universe. Cloud technology can empower these people due to its inherent ability to scale up effortlessly, provide infinite storage capacity without sacrificing quality. We can do all this at less cost and more efficiently.
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About the Guest Author:
Sankarambadi Srinivasan, ‘Srini’, is a maverick writer, technopreneur, geek and online marketing enthusiast rolled into one. He began his career as a Naval weapon specialist. Later, he sold his maiden venture and became head of an offshore Database administration company in Mumbai. He moved on as Chief Technology Officer of one of the largest online entities, where he led consolidation of 300 online servers and introduced several Web 2.0 initiatives. He holds a Master’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunication.
