Deploying and Scaling with Amazon Web Services (with Help from Rubber)

Cloud computing is a game changer when it comes to deploying and scaling web applications. Many free and commercial tools have sprung up to support this deployment model, and they range from “here’s my app, do it all for me” to “I have very specific needs, help me fulfill them”.

The rubber framework leans more to the right on this scale, but like rails, makes it simple to get started, yet possible to do whatever is needed. It is especially suited to small shops that either can’t afford the commercial offerings, or need more flexibility than they provide. Rubber grew out of its author’s need to easily maintain and scale a handful of deployment environments, and as such takes a practical approach for doing so. It is currently being used by a number of small to medium development shops and consultants who need to easily bring up entirely new deployments for each client.

This BoF will take the form of a rubber tutorial, starting with a basic rails application on a single instance, and scaling it up to a handful of instances by the end of the session. We’ll explore some of the gotchas of deploying to EC2 in general, and discuss the audience’s experiences with other EC2 deployment mechanisms.