Chapter 18. Grails in the cloud

 

This chapter covers

  • Understanding cloud platforms and their providers
  • Assessing the impact cloud platforms have on your applications
  • Deploying Hubbub to Cloud Foundry

One of the big questions for any web developer is where to deploy your applications. The traditional approach in the Java world is to run servlet containers on dedicated hardware. This is fine for enterprises that can invest in that up-front cost, but it’s a significant investment for startups and lone developers. It’s been with much envy that we’ve looked on the PHP world with its huge array of cheap hosting options.

Cloud platforms are changing the game, making cheap and easy hosting available to many web development communities, even Java’s. It’s easy to be cynical about this because the cloud has become a marketing and business buzzword, something that solves everyone’s IT problems as if by magic. The truth is definitely more complex, but the underlying technologies of the cloud continue to change the way IT systems are run.

18.1. Getting to know the cloud

18.2. Running in the cloud

18.3. Summary and best practices