Cloud: Less Is More

In the last 20 – 25 years all of us, developers included, have gotten used to an environment of virtually unlimited storage, very fast processors and huge memory capacity. That has served to make developers and engineers lazy, accommodating the PC’s tendency to manage inefficient programs and storing programs in a haphazard manner, remember the days of defragmentation. But the world is changing with the move to cloud computing, no longer are we paying a retail price to buy a PC with huge storage, fast processors and memory power, in our cloud world we are paying to store data and execute software. Now the promise is that cloud computing cost pennies, but that isn’t necessarily true. If your code is inefficient, you can end up spending more than you need to.

So how do you get the best out of the cloud? Well, the secret is in going back to learn lessons from the early days of IT. Back in the pioneering days of the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and BBC computing you have virtually no memory to play with, to develop programs you had to write optimised code making every byte count. The optimisers achieved guru status and achieved functionality out of all proportion to the memory available. Then computer memory started getting bigger and bigger and as it did then the art of optimised code began to fall out of use. Why sweat over every byte when there were more than enough to go around?

There was a brief rally when the early smartphones appeared, but it was short-lived as handset performance took a massive leap forward. Abundant memory created expansive programming and big bloated programs that followed Parkers Law by expanding into the available space. But here we are today on the edge of a cloud-driven environment and once again those lost optimisation skills are in demand. Yes, you can utilise the cloud for your big bloated programs but you will need to spend more unnecessarily. If you want to operate efficiently and effectively in our modern cloud world then ‘less is definitely more’ and you need to recapture those old skills of optimisation whilst keeping the code readily readable and maintainable. However, the best way of making efficient and effective use of the cloud is writing optimised code that minimises your memory footprint and CPU cycles, and ensures you fully utilise every resource that is identified.

I am a huge advocate of the cloud services, these are the future and will be at the centre of computing and software for the foreseeable future but unless you write code specifically for the cloud then you could end up paying more than you need to.

To get the best out of the cloud, and to prevent unfair negative press, it is imperative that business owners ensure that their developers are fully educated on, and practicing, optimisation skills. Developing optimised, readable and maintainable code will not only get the best out of the cloud but it will also prevent legacy issues down the road.

Here at StyleTech, we are a pioneer in the cloud and we have learned the lessons set out above. We understand the cloud and how to get maximum performance for the minimum bill. Our ability to write highly cost-effective cloud apps with readable and maintainable code has been developed right from the beginning. We understand the business requirements and we are here to help you get the most from the cloud economy.