Infrastructure management can burden your developers and divert their focus from creating next-generation, high-velocity apps. Heroku frees your team with tools to quickly deploy, build, manage, and scale enterprise-level applications.
Read on to learn more about the benefits of Heroku, and if it’s a suitable application deployment solution for your organization. If you’re looking for expert advice relevant to your business, click the link below to schedule a call with one of our experts.
We’ll help you save time by helping you choose the best deployment solution aligned with your business goals.
Heroku Overvie
Heroku is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that has been in development since 2007, and was acquired by Salesforce in 2010. Based on a managed container system, the platform enables teams to build, run and scale modern apps.
Heroku leverages an app-centric approach to application delivery, and seamlessly integrates with today’s most widely-used developer tools and workflows. With initial support for the Ruby programming language, Heroku has since evolved to support other popular programming languages, including Python, PHP, Java, Node.js, Scala, Clojure, and Go.
Heroku and all Heroku-based applications are hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
AWS handles computing resources, including:
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Servers
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Networks
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Load balancing
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Operating system selection
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Storage
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Server logging and monitoring
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Application health monitoring
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Container organization
By taking care of the infrastructure, AWS minimizes setup time and allows developers to focus on initiatives that improve application functionality.
Heroku vs. AWS
Heroku and AWS are not exactly direct competitors. Heroku offers PaaS, whereas AWS provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and PaaS.
Heroku is based on AWS and runs on its IaaS infrastructure. As a result, it’s an effective solution for a smaller business because it doesn’t require extensive infrastructure knowledge and does not need DevOps resources.
However, Heroku can get expensive depending on traffic, making AWS a better solution for medium and larger enterprises.
What Heroku Can Do For You
Heroku runs cloud-based applications inside dynos - smart containers that execute code within a fully-managed runtime environment. As a result, apps can be scaled quickly by increasing the number and types of dynos running the app.
Three main tools the cloud platform offers include Heroku Developer Experience (DX), Heroku Operational Experience (OpEx), and Heroku Runtime.
Heroku Developer Experience
Heroku Developer Experience (DX) enables developers to easily deploy from source code management tools like Git, GitHub, or other continuous integration systems. The web-based Heroku Dashboard additionally allows teams to gain instant performance visibility while managing web applications online.
Heroku Operational Experience
Heroku Operational Experience (OpEx) provides developers with valuable data that helps them customize their operational experience and identify and resolve issues. OpEx additionally offers tools to detect and address application health and trends. It also automatically scales dynos when request response times exceed a specific threshold.
Heroku Runtime
Heroku dynos operate in a fully managed runtime environment. Developers deploy code to a system that runs the application. System and language stacks are then monitored, patched, and upgraded automatically without the need for manual intervention.
Heroku Runtime
Heroku dynos operate in a fully managed runtime environment. Developers deploy code to a system that runs the application. System and language stacks are then monitored, patched, and upgraded automatically without the need for manual intervention.
Other Heroku Features
Heroku Postgres
Heroku Postgres is a secure and easily scalable Postgres SQL database as a service optimized for application developers. Features include easy set-up, continuous protection, rollback, and high availability.
Heroku Postgres also includes specialized tools, including forks, followers, and data clips that facilitate database management, allowing developers to focus on building applications.
Apache Kafka on Heroku
Apache Kafka on Heroku fully integrates Kafka into Heroku with powerful tools for topic and partition management, log compaction, and up-to-date metrics.
Heroku Connect
Heroku Connect allows developers to easily build apps that seamlessly share and synchronize data between Heroku Postgres databases and Salesforce.
Heroku Enterprise
Heroku Enterprise enables teams to manage enterprise application development processes, resources, and users. Features include identity federation, fine-grained access controls, and private spaces.
Heroku Elements
Heroku Elements allows developers to extend applications with add-ons. These are pre-integrated third-party cloud services that immediately extend apps with a range of functionality, including logging, payments, data stores, monitoring, and more. Other features include tools to jumpstart projects with buttons and customized language stacks with buildpacks.
Heroku Teams
Heroku Teams enable developers to self-organize by adding and managing members with fine-grained control. Features include tools to assign app-level permissions, and collaboration apps like Heroku Pipelines that define software delivery processes.
Benefits of Heroku
Choosing Heroku over other PaaS options depends on your overall strategy and business goals. Some benefits of choosing Heroku include:
Heroku helps teams focus on creation.
Backed by AWS, Heroku provides a constantly expanding list of tools and services for developing, operating, and extending applications. Developers can choose from a growing ecosystem of add-ons without the need to build supporting applications from scratch.
Tools like Treasure Data, Message Rocket, SendGrid - and many more - are available to fulfill requirements, reduce development time, and simplify maintenance with automatic updates. Further, Heroku stands apart from its competitors by offering these solutions on a user-friendly interface.
You choose the language.
Heroku supports most open-source languages. The platform's easy accessibility allows developers to choose one widely supported language used by your organization, or a customized combo of applications written in different languages.
Heroku facilitates migration to the cloud.
Heroku helps businesses transition to the cloud easily with a rich ecosystem backed by AWS. The benefits of cloud migration are numerous, including better application delivery, enhanced collaboration, and easy scaling.
Cloud computing with Heroku additionally ensures that organizations no longer have to depend on a small list of servers to handle multiple processes and connections. Instead, migrating to Heroku with an expert cloud migration partner ensures your business consistently deploys from a reliable network of servers backed by Amazon’s infrastructure and security experts.
Heroku ensures total data privacy when required.
Concerned about privacy? Many organizations getting on the cloud may be concerned about data security - but they don’t have to be.
Heroku Private Spaces allow privacy-focused organizations to migrate securely with a network-isolated group of data services and applications within a dedicated environment. Services within this network are provisioned within a specified region, ensuring secure network topologies.
Heroku applications can be connected privately to both cloud-based and on-premise systems. Besides being protected through limited access, Heroku Private Spaces ensure low latency performance through their dedicated runtime environment.
Heroku or AWS? Let the experts at Moonswitch decide what’s best for your organization.
You have numerous choices when it comes to developing, deploying, building, and managing your applications. Schedule a call with one of our cloud modernization experts to get a quick rundown of your options and what’s best suited for your business requirements.