> Facebook, for example. Throwing hardware at something > like Facebook is not going to help performance issues in the > software. Facebook is built using PHP, but they do some > fancy compiling on the PHP to make it faster. > ... > Can ColdFusion run something like Facebook/Twitter, ...
There's no inherent reason ColdFusion couldn't run it, but you'd be spending a lot more on hardware and licensing than you would probably be sane to do. Once you get to that scale, every architecture decision becomes critical. Something that makes a 2% difference in efficiency at any level can cost or save millions of dollars. At that scale, ColdFusion's licensing costs alone would be a deal-breaker for anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of economics (sure, there is Railo and others but I'm focusing on Adobe ColdFusion here). At scale, the right tool for the right job becomes critical. ColdFusion's primary value, in my opinion, comes from making difficult tasks easy for developers so that solutions can be put into production more quickly and increasing productivity of a development team. Can ColdFusion scale? Absolutely, if you know what you're doing and have appropriate resources to support it, but the same could be said of any mature technology. There's nothing stopping you from standing up a pair of large load balancers in front of a cluster of CF servers backed by a cluster of SQL Servers, but it won't be inexpensive. Assuming your architecture is sound and the right resources are coming from the right places (e.g. images/css/javascript being loaded from a CDN, proper caching being used across the board, good database design, etc.) there is no reason ColdFusion can't be part of a well-designed architecture aside from the cost. The question you should be asking is which platform is best and most cost effective for YOU at the scale YOU expect to achieve, and how does that scale factor in with your goals (e.g. is it okay to start with ColdFusion and limited resources and get something online more quickly and then, if you become the next Facebook, is it okay to rework your platform into something that will scale at a better cost effectiveness?). -Just ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:350420 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
