CloudComputing

Using the Amazon Cloud effectively

You might be familiar with Amazon as the famous online retailer but did you know that they are also one of the major players in the internet cloud?

Amazon runs their own retail website using a host of highly advanced techniques which we as technicians

can all be envious of. But since 2006 they have allowed us mere mortals to rent the same highly professional technology by the hour under the product name Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Simply put, you can run a massive website as powerful as Amazon.com with no up front costs, no long term commitment, and pay by the hour only for what you use. At Glimworm we build and host websites so when Willie Smits the founder of Masarang Foundation, appeared on the prime time TV documentary “Reunion” we decided to try out the Amazon cloud to handle the expected peaks of extra traffic.

Choosing the service from Amazon was not easy, we first had to investigate the multitude products available under the AWS umbrella which includes services as diverse as bulk email sending and the sort of number crunch-ing capability normally used by national weather centres but in the end we went for the Elas-tic Computing Cloud (EC2) by Amazon. This allowed us to immediately create as many web servers as we needed online and securely. We already had an AWS account so we could do this straight away after logging in. if you don’t have an account you can sign up online at http://aws.amazon.com/.

To my pleasant surprise within 15 minutes we had a web server online and fully functioning with Linux, PHP, and the all the web server software I needed. The process was surprisingly simple and straight forward. I was asked to choose from a simple menu things like - how powerful the server needed to be, what version of Linux and other software I wanted, and whether it should be running in the USA, Europe or Asia.

By Jonathan Carter co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of Glimworm IT BV in Amsterdam. In this white paper Jonathan describes how the Amazon Cloud was utilized effectively to cover extraordinary peaks in web-site traffic during a client’s appearance on a prime time TV show.

Jonathan Carter co-founded Glimworm IT BV in 2001 with partners Paul Manwaring, Marten Hoekstra and Colin Williams. At 15 hisprofessional career began as a game programmer. After more than 10 years of innovative experienceJonathan was asked to join CMG’s prestigious Ad-vanced Technology Depart-ment consulting for blue chip companies. Eventual-ly, he shifted his attention to new media and created Glimworm, bringing his talents to the world of web development. With nearly 30 years in the industry his list of accomplishments is hugeincluding everything from project management torobot building and hecontinues to keep on top of new developments by constantly evaluating emerging technologies.

Part 1 of a series about Cloud Computing

One of our designers had already made a new landing page which contained a movie of the charity at work, some background information and more importantly a donation form. With the server now online he uploaded this via FTP and after a bit of testing we were good to go. The only thing we needed to implement ourselves was a URL for the landing page which we did via our own DNS server, and to make the page popup when a new visitor hit the existing website.

I can honestly say that it worked like a dream. The TV show was aired at prime time and then repeated over the next 2 weeks during which time we were certain that the users would first see the page hosted at Amazon and then if they were interested in more background information could click through to the website. The masarang foundation received a record amount of new sign-ups via the website during and after the television shows and followed it up with a charity gala at the Nemo in Amsterdam hosted by Willie Smits and Rob Kamphues.

Masarang received a record amount of new sign-ups via the website during and after the television show and followed it up with a charity gala at the Nemo in Amsterdam hosted by Willie Smits and Rob Kamphues.

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To have this online for 3 weeks it cost us around $15 and if we would have needed a bigger server we could have had duplicated this setup in less than 5 minutes. When we shut it down we simple stopped paying and our commitment ended the second we pressed the link.

You may think that this situation does not come up very often but let me describe a more common scenario. We recently introduced a new website for a national parcel carrier and we didn’t know how powerful the server needed to be. Traditionally we would have performed capacity calculations and probably purchased a server at least twice as powerful as was necessary. With Amazon EC2 we are currently running the site and monitoring the capacity. After we know how much juice it really needs then we can buy one just the right size and put it in the rack. Low risk, low cost and high impact, this is my evaluation fo Amazon’s cloud service.

If you would like help or advice to use one of Amazon’s online services please feel free to contact Glimworm IT BV in Amsterdam and we will see if we can help you out. During the last year we have not only used AWS but compiled a list of helpful resources and time saving tips.

Of course I would recommend for you to give generously to the Masarang Foundation which can be found at http://www.masarang.nl.

Tel: +31 (0)20 - 616 56 40Fax: +31 (0)20 - 240 13 57E-mail: jc@glimworm.com

Glimworm IT BVEerste Weteringplantsoen 81017 SK, AmsterdamNederland

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The Masarang Foundation was founded in 2001 by Willie Smits (Indonesian, born in The Netherlands). The organization is strongly rooted in the local Indonesian community and currently has about 40 local employees. The aim of the Masarang Foundation is to save the environment through the active participation of local people. Through its projects, the foundation works on solutions for the most pressing problems the world currently faces: climate change, extinction of plants and animals,

destruction of ecosystems, poverty and underdevelopment.

The event yesterday night has been a good success for Willie Smits and the Masarang Foundation.Thanks for being so cooperative and putting your time and heart into this cause. Without thecontribution of guys like you it would have been impossible to create such a succes.

Steven Smit,Masarang Internationalwww.masarang.nl

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