How The Cloud Powers The Social Web

The cloud and the social web – two terms that have fuelled and underlie the concepts of the web 2.0 movement that has been popular and synonymous with the growth of the internet. If you were to look at both terms in isolation then you would be forgiven in thinking that they are completely independent concepts. Cloud based concepts and terminology all deal in one very core principle – that information is stored within an internet based cloud and thus technically is not prohibited by hardware requirements other than the reliance on an internet connection. The social web on the other hand could be argued as being a complex weaving of ideologies from user engagement and empowerment from a brand perspective to a complete game changer in regards to the sharing of information and freshness of news. However there is a concept integrated within the social networks that is so important to the social web that without it the social networks simply could not function. The way in which many social networks are created enable their users to connect across a myriad of devices and store a huge amount of information that is accessible cross device and at any time. It is this requirement and expectation of social media that makes the cloud so appealing to many app developers and why cloud concepts and the social web are closer than you think.

Why do social media websites use cloud based hosting/servers?

The requirement for social media networks to allow their users to access data in a truly flexible manner underlies the requirements for cloud based/influenced technology. More specifically cloud based functionality allows social networks to operate site functionality in a more cost effective way as well as serving sites faster due to outsourcing and spreading resources across a virtualised environment. In fact it is the virtualised environment and scalability of the cloud that is likely to be the most important feature for many social networks. For example sites that sit on cloud hosting solutions can benefit from a virtualized server environment enabling them to scale their resources for different computational demands. This ability to scale truly helps social media networks expand during user acquisition and reduces the requirements to buy in additional hardware. For start up social networks this flexibility in regards to costs means that sites can handle increased demands with better (virtualized) servers when they are needed.

However there are other benefits other than pure cloud hosting. Virtualized elastic environments have an additional benefit when combined with batch tasks or scripts and storage of data logs. With some social networks dealing with a variety of different rich media, data logs (including user data logs) can add up and become a significant resource drain on local server requirements. By outsourcing the storage of these data logs and rich media to a virtualized host or server, social media sites are able to reduce the computational requirements on the main front end server. Similarly the back end server might be better served by utilising a flexible elastic solution when dealing with multiple scripts or management of service clusters rather than relying on a local system for managing automated scripts. For some social networks this means huge savings (both resources and cost savings) can be found in migrating a data centre into the cloud.

In short not only do cloud technologies allow social networks to manage their own computational requirements but they can also supplement existing servers to "plugin" and manage excessive computational requirements. This reduces the hardware requirements and thus costs of managing new hardware allowing social networks to better serve their most important asset – their audience.  

Future of social media and the cloud?

With the development of better cloud based solutions, the future of social networks are looking particularly good. Innovation is no longer hindered by hardware costs & requirements. Virtualized server instances can be quickly deployed when required during testing for a wide variety of uses – from data crunching and collecting to application development. Similarly start ups with big ideas but shallow pockets can benefit from fairly cheap cloud based infrastructures rather than paying out for expensive hardware. Innovation loves the flexibility of the cloud.

So what do you do if you have a big idea but no resources to test the waters? Look out for cloud hosting trials that offer some free computational resources. This will enable you to get used to the cloud server environment and to experience the flexibility of the service. Also make sure that the service is truly flexible. Many solutions are essentially virtual private servers masquerading as cloud hosting by offering blocks of virtual resources rather than allowing you to scale resources. Finally if you are unsure about the product simply contact the customer sales team to see whether their service offering fits with your own requirements.