You don't need to write server-side code to have a persistent flex application. Skim over the available cloud computing services and see how they can support your Flex application. Then have fun looking at how you could build an internal Flex application without writing a line of code on the server. We will use an example application which uses Amazon's web-services, SimpleDB and Simple Storage Solution (S3).

1. Cloud Computing in Flex
Minimizing Risk, maximizing opportunity

2. Jacob Wright
360|Flex and MAX - Advanced ActionSript APIs
Flight Framework
Blog jacwright.com
Site gearsandcogs.com

3. “Cloud Computing”
Data and computing power which can
be accessed from a cloud of online
resources
More information on wikipedia

4. Cloud Service Types
Services - APIs (Google Maps, OpenID)
Storage - file and database storage
Infrastructure - servers on-demand
Platform - complete application stack

5. Several players
Amazon Web Services - à la carte
Google App Engine - complete package
Mosso
Joyent
GoGrid

6. Amazon’s Web Services
Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
SimpleDb
Simple Storage Solution (S3)
CloudFront
Simple Queue Service (SQS)
Flexible Payments Service (FPS)
DevPay
Mechanical Turk

7. Web Application
SimpleDB
Database EC2
Web Servers User
S3 Cloud
Storage
SQS
Task Queue EC2
Processing

8. Google App Engine
Code in Python or Java
Use Google’s APIs
Big Table
Google Accounts
Image
Memcache
URL Fetch
Mail

9. Web Application
Google App Engine
User
App Engine App Cloud

10. Which is better?
Much more flexibility with Amazon (e.g. sockets)
Much less IT with Google
Greater lock-in with Google
Trade-offs to consider with everything

11. Leveling the playing field
Cheaper to deploy, able to scale
Developers can now compete with big companies
Startups can bootstrap more easily or require less
funding
Minimizes risk, cost of failure isn’t so high, viral can be
dealt with gracefully.

12. Flex Application Possibilities
Wowza or FMS on Amazon EC2
PyAMF and Big Table on Google App Engine
Amazon S3 and Amazon SimpleDB directly

13. Demo

14. Jacob Wright
Blog http://jacwright.com/
Site http://gearsandcogs.com/