Is it possible to run your Penny Auction Software on a cloud server

The answer to that question is not simple. Most of the cloud server environments impose some limitations on the application. For successful running the penny auction software requires that cron jobs (scheduled tasks on the server) should run with maximal frequency (1 minute or less) and most cloud servers do not allow it due to the performance considerations of their system.

Moreover, one of the critical components of penny auction software performance bottleneck is the Memory Cache of the server. The memory cache, while based on standard PHP module, is not necessarily available and does not necessarily  function properly on a cloud computer. Unfortunately, the penny auction software falls in a very limited category of web applications that need synchronization in under one-second and it’s really pushing to the limit the capabilities of the cloud servers.

Another problem is the very specific MySQL and Apache settings that are needed for a high performance of penny auction software. In most cases cloud computers do not allow such tuning; in any case, that needs to be negotiated with your hosting provider prior to the purchase of cloud service.

So, the question is not if it’s able to work on a cloud server like it is able to work on any dedicated server, but to which extent this particular cloud server is able to simulate a regular dedicated server. Since the majority of cloud servers are designed without the  under 1-second synchronization in mind, and are not intended to work in such harsh conditions as those imposed by penny auction software requirements, it might lead to a malfunctioning of several parts of the website

• Timers updated on time
• Timers showing different information
• Information about the current bid

One of the additional details that have to be considered, is cloud server pricing. While most of the dedicated servers have a fixed monthly price, the cloud server is based on a hourly usage of CPU. In the case of penny auction software the server is almost constantly busy, as it needs to deliver updated information about latest bids to every user.