A reason for change
I am really taking my bruises while hacking on my Amazon Cloud web server. But I like the abuse. I must be a cyber masochist. My cloud is called the Amazon Web Service (AWS). They provide their smallest server to hackers like me, with a first time free one year trial to play with their toys. It’s not REALLY a toy, but a “for real” cloud server. Actually as good as any server I would run from home. It is just not a heavy duty data masher like the big boys use. The best part is I don’t ever worry about the hardware being too small or too big (expensive).
AWS is not the only cloud available. There are many choices. AWS is a, if not the, major player. The story goes in the corporate world that, “Nobody gets fired for choosing AWS.”
What’s cool is I have the complete set of component tools to go with this server. Some are free and some are not. What the cloud does is give me the same power to add and grow as any other client in the cloud. It is a pay-by-the-hour rental and usage fee system. The more power you need and use, the more you pay. What is great is you only pay for what you really use. It is intended to be expandable and retractable as needed.
Some people (companies) pay hundreds of thousands of dollars or more per month. So far my bill has been $0.01 the first month; yeah, really. When my year is up it will likely be in the $15.00 per month range. About double what I pay for my other ISP and using a shared server. I am a cheap SOB (Son Of a Bit or Byte).
The shared servers are wonderful for low usage personal and very small business web sites. The kind of website that is informational like a blog and “what we do” business brochures. However, if you are doing a large interactive business (eCommerce) or applications like streaming video on the internet, a shared server is not a good choice. My tiny on-line business has worked for years on a shared server, but it could be the heavy hitter at times. It was only a matter of time as I grow the business, when I would have to move it or shutdown. I was preparing and that time has come. The cyber-bullies forced my need.
So I am learning as I go in this new environment, while actually building a new store presence on this cloud server. It looks and feels very clean and fast. I like what I see so far. If for some reason I need real power and performance in the future, it is all there. If I wasn’t 67 years old, the experience would look good on my resume.