Facebook Cookbook

Hosting

Problem

I need to find reliable and scalable hosting for my Facebook applications.

Solution

Hosting a Facebook app doesn’t have any real requirements, other than the ability to rapidly scale up if your app becomes popular.

Note

Unclear on why you would need your own hosting since your app is on Facebook? Check out Chapter 4 for more information on the way Facebook apps work.

Facebook has negotiated with Joyent and Amazon Web Services to offer programs tailored to Platform developers. You can, of course, host your app anywhere you’d like, but make sure that your hosting provider doesn’t have a really expensive ramp up if you exceed your plan. Your app could become the hottest thing on Facebook overnight, which would be awesome, but then you could get a bill from your provider for $100,000 in overages, which would suck (to say the least).

Note

If you’re happy with your existing hosting and have already checked to make sure you’re OK to become #1 with a bullet, you can safely skip the following discussion.

Discussion

Facebook’s Developer Resource page lists two hosting partner programs: Joyent Facebook Developers Progam and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Joyent Facebook developers program

A proud member and leader of the cloud computing world, Joyent provides scalable web application hosting using their Accelerator technology. From its site (http://joyent.com/developers/facebook):

Facebook, Joyent, and Dell have partnered to provide free scalable, on-demand infrastructure from Joyent to Facebook ...