Deploying Notes on cloud hosting (AppFog)

With the workforce module we were able to scale Notes to use up all the cores on the server. This handles scaling within one server, but to scale your website beyond one server requires configuring a multi-server system. Cloud hosting systems promise the ability to automatically scale the number of servers as traffic increases or decreases throughout the day.

It can be really complex to set up a cloud hosting system. A few cloud hosting companies promise to simplify away cloud hosting complications, some of whom offer Node cloud hosting.

Let's look at this by using AppFog to host the Notes application.

To start, go to http://appfog.com and register for a free account. Once you're registered, go to the dashboard and click on the Create App button. On the page that follows, click this button:

This sets up a blank minimized Node application. The source code for that app is on GitHub at https://github.com/appfog/af-node-express, should you want to take a...