Performance and load testing of cloud vs. classic server platforms (Case study: Social network application)

Migration from the classic server platforms to the newly emerging cloud technologies has been the most common challenges during the past years. Many businesses and users are yet concerned about what the cloud has to offer. Moving their businesses and data to a new platform yet has some challenges to overcome, such as safety, integrity, reliability and scalability. Most of the companies offering cloud solutions claim to have overcome many obstacles and provide a fully robust infrastructure, but these claims are yet to be proven with real case studies and software engineering approaches. In this paper we will provide real data measurements, obtained from load and performance testing of both infrastructures, that will present a good comparison between Server and Cloud platforms when providing the same service to the end users. We have chosen an adequate application, a university social network, which can provide a good estimation of the scalability of the Cloud vs. Server infrastructure. This case study has not only proven that some of the claims made so far are right but it has also raised several other questions in terms of investments costs, reliability and future implementations approaches.