Simplewala: Bridging the gap between PaaS and IaaS

I started content writing about a few years back–back in 2011, 2012 to be precise and I always used a hosting platform to use the services. The simplicity they bring always outweighs the risks. I could create a new platform and be ready to go live in a few minutes. I have used Blogger (*.blogspot.com), WordPress (*.wordpress.com), and a bunch of others who could not survive for more than a few years. The challenge actually shows when you have to:

• Monetize the platform.
• Go to another platform.
• Process the incoming traffic or take them elsewhere.
• Add features that the platform does not support natively.

Over the last few years I have been exploring if I can use custom hosting, such as an ASP.NET Core based website that supports Markdown-based content authoring and generation, or whether a static-site is a way to go with GitHub/GitLab-based hosting.

Now, I believe I am starting to settle as the entire platform would act as a puzzle that I can rotate and combine in any manner. I can host my server on any hosting platform, I can keep the content on the cheapest (yet fastest) storage platform (with high availability, of course), and then plug them together to become a web app.

This blog is 100% hosted on Simplewala platform. I am going all in, betting big on this one, and if all goes through fine, I would be (should be) the first person to complain when the services go down or when something is not working.

I am betting that I am not alone and that I am going to help solve the problem for more people! If you are interested in exploring the platform, using it, or testing it out, please let me know. I am not opening the platform for public use just now, but the platform for now would remain a “invite-only”.

Simplewala

Simplewala is a platform that provides the best of PaaS and IaaS:

• It is simple to configure, manage, and build on top of, just like PaaS platforms.
• It is raw, bare compute power, and unapologetically machine, just like an IaaS deployment.

I have been using the shared hosting platforms, PaaS app and software deployment services–Azure App Service being my favorite.

The concept of Simplewala is not to be a hosting provider, but a tool that simplifies the hosting and management experience. I am not building a replacement layer for the underlying infrastructure, but a rather “simpler” (pun intended) way of managing your resources.

Supported Features

In the initial version of the app, the goal is to simplify:

• How you manage your domains. While Simplewala is not a domain registrar, we will offer the right tools to get visibility in what your domain name has and what you need to set to get everything working. (See Figure 2)
• The deployments, management, and lifecycle of the apps delivery. The apps include, but not limited to WordPress, runtime apps (think, Python, .NET, Go, etc.) and finally plain Docker apps.
• Provisioning, running, managing, backing up, and restoring your databases. The platform supports MySQL and PostgreSQL at the moment, with plans to increase the SQL and NoSQL databases in future. The goal will always be on open-source platforms at first.

Today, we offer free SSL certificates (with Let’s Encrypt), which is a huge gap in the offerings from other hosting platforms. Almost every hosting platform charges a few USD per month and wild card certificates are a bigger challenge. Simplewala solves it by using Let’s Encrypt-based certificates. Our platform requests the SSL certificates for your app automatically and applies them to the servers. We also review and renew your certificates before they expire. This way, you and your customers are not (b)locked out.

All in all, we expect that the platform simplifies your flows by taking out the complexities from machine management. You get to use a dashboard that works “with” you and “for” you to keep the complexity out of the picture.

Future?

While, we are spending more time testing the waters for the project, finding the edge cases, and making sure the platform is stable. The next steps are to make the platform more consistent (running multiple gears causes the state of the servers, apps, and platform to be inconsistent). The goal is for the resources and servers to be run and managed by the platform, with the user defining the end state of their services and apps on the platform (think, a database) and then have them provisioned on the servers; a Terraform-like experience.

While I do not have an active roadmap (I do; it’s just not polished enough…) I do plan to:

• Make the platform simpler and easier to use across the devices (Desktop, Android, etc.), screens (resolutions, sizes, etc.), and networks.
• Reduce the complexity in the offerings (offer one web app platform, and offer it best).
• Simplify the operations of the apps, so a 10-year old can use the platform and deploy their first app in a few minutes (not days!)
• Make the platform more readable, so you know what you need to do and what platform takes care of.

The documentation of the platform will be available on simplewala.com. While, the platform itself will be hosted on simplewala.cloud.