Building Applications in the Cloud: Concepts, Patterns, and Projects

Following the familiar “Design Patterns” format, expert cloud developer Chris Moyer introduces proven patterns for cloud platforms from Amazon, Google, and other providers. Moyer demonstrates these patterns at work through extensive example code and case study applications for Amazon Web Services (AWS). As you increasingly move to the cloud, you’ll constantly encounter the challenges this book solves. You’ll rely on it for years–whenever you need a cloud solution you can trust.

Table of Contents:
Preface     xv About the Author     xx   Introduction     1 What Is Cloud Computing?     1 The Evolution of Cloud Computing     2    The Main Frame     3    The PC Revolution     4    The Fast Internet     5    The Cloud     6    HTML5 and Local Storage     7    The Dawn of Mobile Devices     9 Threading, Parallel Processing, and Parallel Computing     10 How Does Cloud-Based Development Differ from Other Application Development?     11 What to Avoid     13 Getting Started in the Cloud     14 Selecting a Cloud Pattern     16 Implementing a Cloud Pattern     17   PART I:  CONCEPTS   Chapter 1  Fundamentals of Cloud Services     21 Origins of Cloud Computing     21 What Is a Cloud Service?     23    Compute     24    Storage     24    Connectivity     24 The Legacy Pattern     25 Just Because It’s in the Cloud Doesn’t Mean It Scales     26 Failure as a Feature     27 Consistency, Availability, and Partition Tolerance     28    Consistency     29    Availability     30    Partition Tolerance     30 Eventual Consistency     31 Summary     32   Chapter 2  Making Software a Service     33 Tools Used in This Book     34    Signing Up for Amazon Web Services     34    Installing boto     35    Setting Up the Environment     36    Testing It All     38 What Does Your Application Need?     39 Data Layer     40    Introducing the AWS Databases     41 Application Layer     47    Using Elastic Load Balancing     47    Adding Servers to the Load Balancer     49    Automatically Registering an Instance with a Load Balancer     51 HTTP and REST     53    The Header     53    The Body     57    Methods     58 Authorization Layer     62 Client Layer     64    Browser-Based Clients     65    Native Applications     66 Summary     67   Chapter 3  Cloud Service Providers     69 Amazon Web Services     69    Simple Storage Service (S3)     71    CloudFront     77    Simple Queue Service (SQS)     80    Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)     83    Elastic Block Storage (EBS)     88    Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)     91    SimpleDB     93    Relational Database Service (RDS)     95    Simple Notification Service (SNS)     102    Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)     106 Google Cloud     108    AppEngine     108    Google Storage     111 Rackspace Cloud     112    CloudFiles     112    CloudServers     113    CloudSites     113 Summary     114   PART II:  PATTERNS   Chapter 4  Designing an Image     117 Prepackaged Images     119    Overview     119    Reasons for Usage     119    Description     120    Implementation     120    Example     122    Summary     125 Singleton Instances     127    Overview     127    Reasons for Usage     127    Description     128    Implementation     128    Example     128    Summary     130 Prototype Images     131    Overview     131    Reasons for Usage     131    Description     132    Implementation     132    Example     133    Summary     135   Chapter 5  Designing an Architecture     137 Adapters     139    Overview     139    Reasons for Usage     140    Description     140    Implementation     140    Example     141    Summary     146 Facades     147    Overview     147    Reasons for Usage     148    Description     148    Implementation     148    Example     149    Summary     152 Proxies and Balancers     153    Overview     153    Reasons for Usage     153    Description     154    Implementation     154    Example     155    Summary     158   Chapter 6  Executing Actions on Data     159 Queuing     161    Overview     161    Reasons for Usage     162    Description     162    Implementation     163    Example     163    Summary     170 Command      173    Overview     173    Reasons for Usage     173    Description     174    Implementation     174    Example     175    Summary     179 Iterator     181    Overview     181    Reasons for Usage     181    Description      182    Implementation     182    Example     183    Summary     185 Observer      187    Overview    187    Reasons for Usage      188    Description     188    Implementation     188    Example     189    Summary     191   Chapter 7  Clustering     193 The n-Tier Web Pattern     195    Overview     195    Reasons for Usage     196    Description     196     Implementation     197    Example     198    Summary     210 Semaphores and Locking     211    Overview     211    Reasons for Usage     211    Description     212    Implementation     212    Example     213    Summary     218 Map/Reduce     219    Overview     219    Reasons for Usage      220    Description     220    Implementation     220    Example     222    Summary     226   PART III: PROJECTS   Chapter 8  A Simple Weblog     229 Storage     229    Creating a Domain     231    The User Object     232    The Post Object     234    The Comment Object     237 Application     240    A Brief Introduction to WSGI     241    The DB Handler     243    The User, Post, and Comment Handlers     248    Spam Classification     249 Presentation     253    Setting Up the HTTP Proxy     254    Posts     255    Comments     266 Deploying     272    Starting the Base Instance     272    Installing the Software     273    Installing the Application     275    Installing Apache      276    Bundling the Image      277    Creating the Proxy     279 Summary     279   Chapter 9  A Weblog Using Marajo     281 Initializing the Environment     282    handlers     283    resources     283    static     283    templates     283 Creating the Resources     284 Creating the Handlers     286 Configuring the Application      287 Creating the Templates      288 Running the Application     289 Creating Custom Templates     289    The List Template     289    The Edit Template     292 Summary     296   Glossary     297 Index     307