Simple Application Server:What is Simple Application Server?

Simple Application Server provides the following benefits:

• No need for hardware such as on-premises physical hosts

• Easy-to-use operation experience, delivery within minutes, and rapid deployment

• Cloud computing resources provided in the form of cost-effective plans to deliver robust performance

• Security protection features such as firewalls, HTTPS access, internal network isolation, and data backup

• O&M features such as resource monitoring, self-diagnostics, and operation logs

• Support for Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images (application images), public images (OS images), and the application image management feature

• Industry-standard API that improves ease of use and compatibility

Simple Application Server is based on the following functional components and services:

• Plans

  Simple Application Server packs computing, storage, and network resources into plans to simplify configurations. The following table describes the resources.

  Resource type	Description
  Computing resources	Simple application servers use ECS instance types that provide consistent performance and are suitable for low-load scenarios in which small web and lightweight applications are used. You may require other instance types that have sufficient CPU power to handle high-load tasks. For example, if you want to deploy large applications or encode videos, we recommend that you use ECS instances. For more information, see Overview of instance families.
  Storage resources	Simple application servers are equipped with cost-effective system disks that deliver stable read and write performance, which meets the requirements of mainstream applications.
  Network resources	Each plan of Simple Application Server includes a data transfer quota and a public bandwidth quota to allow external resources to access the servers over the Internet. By default, each simple application server is assigned a public IP address.

• Images

  Simple Application Server provides the following image types:

  • Application images: contain applications, the initialization data of the applications, and the runtime environments and operating systems that are required by the applications. After you create a simple application server from an application image, you can use preset applications or customize applications based on your business requirements. Application images provide ready-to-use applications. This way, you do not need to upload or install applications.

  • OS images: contain only operating systems to start servers and do not contain application data or environment configurations. After you create a simple application server from an OS image, the server runs on an OS with no installed applications. You can install applications on the server based on your business requirements.

  You can create custom images by using simple application servers. For more information, see Overview of custom images.

• Relevant services

  To set up and manage applications in an efficient manner, you can use Simple Application Server together with the following Alibaba Cloud services:

  • Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): By default, simple application servers that belong to the same account and reside in the same region are deployed within the same VPC. These servers can be interconnected over the internal network. An internal bandwidth is shared among simple application servers within a single VPC. Bandwidth stability cannot be ensured for communications over the internal network. For more information about VPCs, see What is a VPC?

  • Alibaba Cloud DNS: resolves domain names and points them to the IP addresses of simple application servers. For more information, see Bind and resolve a domain name.

  • SSL Certificate Service: ensures external resources to access simple application servers over secure HTTPS protocol. For more information, see Install an SSL certificate in a WordPress runtime and Install an SSL certificate in a Node.js environment.