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As a newbie, I've really enjoyed deploying on Heroku. However these outages really terrify me. Is there an easy way to host a redundant version of your app outs

As a newbie, I've really enjoyed deploying on Heroku. However these outages really terrify me. Is there an easy way to host a redundant version of your app outside of Heroku?

philip1209 14y ago
If you use Cloudflare it will serve a static version of the site until it is back online.
- garindra 14y ago
  I always use Cloudflare in front of Heroku; mainly because of that and the cheap & simple SSL set-up that they have.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - bad_user 14y ago
    Do note that Cloudflare is throwing mallware/captcha notices to legitimate users, which is extremely annoying. When I get such a screen I immediately close the website I'm visiting. And no, contrary to what they tell me, I do not have "a virus" nor is my computer part of a botnet.
  - pbreit 14y ago
    Also, careful with Cloudflare SSL. It only secures between the browser and Cloudflare's data center. The connection between your server and Cloudflare remains non-SSL.
    - garindra 14y ago
      You actually have the option to enable SSL both on (customer->cloudflare) and (cloudflare->your server).
      - philip1209 14y ago
        And, as I understand it you, you can do: customer=> Cloudflare SSL then cloudflare=> Heroku SSL through Heroku Piggyback
      - philip1209 14y ago
        And, as I understand it you, you can do: customer=> Cloudflare SSL then cloudflare=> Heroku SSL through Heroku Piggyback
patio11 14y ago
Ask a simple question, get a simple answer: No. This is no knock on Heroku, either. No hosting solution can make that easy: it is an enterprise requirement which implies six figures of investment and a dedicated ops team with no newbies on it.
- jsprinkles 14y ago
  I'm sorry, but that's completely untrue. I can't speak for using Heroku specifically, but in the end hosting is just running an app. It's fairly trivial to make an app multi-provider these days through a plethora of methods. DNS and a low TTL is on the easiest-to-approach end if your app is designed for it and aware of the complications, which implies thinking about your database and other supporting architecture from the perspective of a multihomed setup. If your app isn't idempotent nor designed to be multihomed, it'll be harder, but six figures of investment is insanely high even in that awful case. Perspective: I could throw an app on Rackspace and Amazon, with a replicated database, for under $200, in about a day.
  - semiquaver 14y ago
    The context of the original question was improving the availability of a product deployed to Heroku or other PaaS, which implies a lack of dedicated operations staff. An experienced ops team willing to be on call 24x7 is easily six figures by itself.
    - jsprinkles 14y ago
      If you are running an app that is utilized by more people than just yourself, there is never "a lack of dedicated operations staff". That situation simply does not exist in any known realm. In the case of a solo developer, you are the operations staff. You are on call, 24x7. With that in mind, everything I talk about in my reply is doable by one person, or a solo developer. A cursory understanding of administration goes far, and if you're deploying to Heroku, you should know enough about administration to not be completely in the dark when things fall apart. Deploying a mass-consumable Web service implies that you have accepted the fact that you are now a developer and administrator.

As a newbie, I've really enjoyed deploying on Heroku. However these outages really terrify me. Is there an easy way to host a redundant version of your app outside of Heroku?

philip1209 14y ago

If you use Cloudflare it will serve a static version of the site until it is back online.

garindra 14y ago
I always use Cloudflare in front of Heroku; mainly because of that and the cheap & simple SSL set-up that they have.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- bad_user 14y ago
  Do note that Cloudflare is throwing mallware/captcha notices to legitimate users, which is extremely annoying. When I get such a screen I immediately close the website I'm visiting. And no, contrary to what they tell me, I do not have "a virus" nor is my computer part of a botnet.
- pbreit 14y ago
  Also, careful with Cloudflare SSL. It only secures between the browser and Cloudflare's data center. The connection between your server and Cloudflare remains non-SSL.
  - garindra 14y ago
    You actually have the option to enable SSL both on (customer->cloudflare) and (cloudflare->your server).
    - philip1209 14y ago
      And, as I understand it you, you can do: customer=> Cloudflare SSL then cloudflare=> Heroku SSL through Heroku Piggyback
    - philip1209 14y ago
      And, as I understand it you, you can do: customer=> Cloudflare SSL then cloudflare=> Heroku SSL through Heroku Piggyback

patio11 14y ago

Ask a simple question, get a simple answer: No. This is no knock on Heroku, either. No hosting solution can make that easy: it is an enterprise requirement which implies six figures of investment and a dedicated ops team with no newbies on it.

jsprinkles 14y ago
I'm sorry, but that's completely untrue. I can't speak for using Heroku specifically, but in the end hosting is just running an app. It's fairly trivial to make an app multi-provider these days through a plethora of methods. DNS and a low TTL is on the easiest-to-approach end if your app is designed for it and aware of the complications, which implies thinking about your database and other supporting architecture from the perspective of a multihomed setup. If your app isn't idempotent nor designed to be multihomed, it'll be harder, but six figures of investment is insanely high even in that awful case. Perspective: I could throw an app on Rackspace and Amazon, with a replicated database, for under $200, in about a day.
- semiquaver 14y ago
  The context of the original question was improving the availability of a product deployed to Heroku or other PaaS, which implies a lack of dedicated operations staff. An experienced ops team willing to be on call 24x7 is easily six figures by itself.
  - jsprinkles 14y ago
    If you are running an app that is utilized by more people than just yourself, there is never "a lack of dedicated operations staff". That situation simply does not exist in any known realm. In the case of a solo developer, you are the operations staff. You are on call, 24x7. With that in mind, everything I talk about in my reply is doable by one person, or a solo developer. A cursory understanding of administration goes far, and if you're deploying to Heroku, you should know enough about administration to not be completely in the dark when things fall apart. Deploying a mass-consumable Web service implies that you have accepted the fact that you are now a developer and administrator.