Question

We are in the startup build phase of a new PHP webapp that will be placed onto a cloud server to allow fast and easy up/downscaling when customers will grow or decrease in numbers. Most probably, we will use a PHP framework (Codeigniter) to keep development speed high.

Our next step is to implement features for increased performance (cacheing etc) and choosing which databases to use.

Solutions like memcached and eaccelerator is of course what comes up into our minds at first, but are there even better solutions available out there today?

Is mySQL really yesterdays choice when high performance is in focus?

So, please – share your ideas and thoughts on how to create the basic cornerstones for a high performance webapp!

Thanks!

Answer 1

Two things you should know:

1. 8 or 9 out of 10 startups fail; and
2. Nothing exceptional is required to get you to 1-5 million uniques a month. If and when you get to 5+ million uniques ou will probably have rewritten your application 2-6 times.

So basically don’t worry about this “problem” until you have a problem.

Also cloud servers are good for burst usage but the data fees tend to make them a bad choice for constant usage. The typical progression is:

1. Shared hosting (you may skip this);
2. VPS (you might skip this too);
3. Dedicated server; then
4. Co-location.

As for what tools to use, well that depends entirely on your app. MySQL is a fine choice for most circumstances. An opcode cache like APC or eAccelerator is typically a good idea. Memcache can be useful for certain kinds of applications.