Web programming - Before I get started

Before I ask my question, I will familiarize you with my programming background.

When it comes to web programming, I haven't done much. The experience I have deals mostly with application programming using C/C++, visual basic and C# programming. The most web programming I've done has basically consisted of standard static HTML programming, some perl script programming and a few incorporated free JavaScript's. And that was probably over 3 years ago. So you can say I've been out of the loop when it comes to web programming.

Now I'm about to start a new project that will require extensive web programming. So these past few days I've been experimenting with some of the latest web programming technology such as PHP and ASP.NET. I've already done quite a few small PHP scripts, such as user authentication, a voting poll, and basic database read and right accessing using MySQL. And have just recently turned my attention to what ASP.NET has to offer (still experimenting with this one). But so far from what I can tell, I'm impressed with both technology's. Ultimately my decision will come down to cost, ease of development and scalability. So Before I even start, I'd like to design a system with these factors in mind.

When it comes to development ease, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that both PHP and ASP.NET will do the job which leads me to my other 2 criteria's.

I need to create a system that will scale with ease and at the same time be cheap. So what I'm looking for is a scalable solution for server load balancing (cluster farm of servers) that I can add servers as needed. Now I have absolutely no experience what so ever on these issues which is why I'm here asking this question.

What are my scalability options when developing for this web project? For instance, what are my options for scalable windows based servers using IIS and ASP.NET? How do I go about adding the flexabilty of adding servers as needed? Do I have to use windows advanced server in order for this to work or can I use windows 2000/xp pro for this with cheaper third party software? As you can see I really have know idea on how to approach this and any insight would be greatly appreciated (links to websites, books to buy, ect..)

Just a side note, I can safely say that I will need to access several windows based servers because of several specialized apps I will need to tie into. Because of this I have been leaning towards ASP.NET for it's ease of tying into these apps. But that doesn't mean I would use it exclusively, I still may use PHP and Linux for other things.

You have a lot of options here, but you have just about answered your own question on this one.

You mention three criteria:
Cost = PHP, Ease = PHP, Scalability = (Both The Same).

As far as load balancing, aside from popular opinion, no, you do not need Win2k Server Advanced to do load balancing. As a matter of fact, "load balanced" system that were not truly load balanced, so don't get confused.

My suggestion is to purchase a dedicated solid state / hardware load balancer.
A good start would be to look at: http://www.coyotepoint.com/

Don't worry too much about what technology you are going to program the app in. Start with your diagrams and prototypes first then the technology will work its way into the picture.

I've been in your situation before only to spend a lot of time thinking about the technology and no time on the solution. In the end you have a lot of wasted time for nothing when you are still not more than 50% sure which technology is the right technology until you have a clear idea how the project is to work.

Here is my suggestion:

1. Evaluate the cost of your hardware
2. Get some wireframes / prototypes of the application going
3. Mock up some html for the second stage of the prototype using dummy data and no database.

4. At this point you will be revising the look & feel of the app and you will find many notes appear out of thin air telling you what type of database to use (flat, relational, etc)... would the data benefit from using objects ( did somebody say oracle / postgresql ?)

5. Now pick a technology/language and start coding.

6. After all this, if you still have not figured out how to proceed then you missed something... You did not prototype well or you didn't get enough feedback on the application.

Thanks Wil for the excellent information. The link you provided for the load balancing hardware was just what I needed. It appears I don't have to worry about scalability with hardware like that. I also found load balancing using software ran on Linux. I found it here: URL

I'll have to check that out as well.

Thanks again.

Not a problem... hope all goes well.