FAQ

Question: What interfaces are currently available in the Simple Cloud API?

Answer: The Simple Cloud API provides interfaces for File Storage, Document Storage, and Simple Queue services.

Question: Will the Simple Cloud API include services beyond file storage, document storage, and simple queue in the future?

Answer: Definitely! We believe the field of cloud application services will continue to grow. We will consider new APIs as adoption of the corresponding services by vendors and users builds to critical mass.

Question: Why are you trying to establish a new standard when so many organizations are working on cloud standards already?

Answer: The Simple Cloud API is not a standard, and standardization of these services is not one of our goals. The Simple Cloud API is an open source project that makes it easier for developers to use cloud application services by abstracting insignificant API differences. One of the design goals of the project is to encourage innovation. To this end, the Simple Cloud API can be used for common operations while users can easily drop down to vendor libraries to access value-add features.

Question: Why isn’t the Simple Cloud API more object oriented?

Answer: We chose a simpler, more procedural approach for two reasons:

• We believe the interface to cloud services should support the users' own application objects and models, so we started with a design that would not get in the way of these abstractions.
• This project is at least as much about the community as it is about the code. The code available at launch is intended to be a starting point for community feedback and contributions.

Question: Why isn’t the Simple Cloud API less object oriented?

Answer: One of our design goals is to define interfaces that can be implemented in any object-oriented language. Some OO languages don’t support a global scope, and most of their communities consider global functions a bad practice. We have therefore modeled the services as separate classes in the initial version of the API.

Question: How does this initiative relate to Zend Framework?

Answer: Our primary goal in this initiative is to define interfaces to be implemented as a new Zend Framework component called ‘Zend_Cloud’. Zend Framework will host these proposals and code for this Zend_Cloud. We’ve launched the Simple Cloud API with additional goals, however, including stimulating mutual awareness of PHP and the cloud, helping users unfamiliar with Zend Framework and its proposal process to get involved in Zend_Cloud, and identifying potential new cloud application services. We’ve created a forum to facilitate these discussions at simplecloudapi.org.

Question: What is Zend Framework?

Answer: Zend Framework is the leading open source PHP framework. Its use-at-will components offer solutions for almost all requirements encountered in complex applications. To find out more, visit http://framework.zend.com.

Question: Do I have to use the rest of Zend Framework?

Answer: No. All of Zend Framework’s can be used independently, including Zend_Cloud.

Question: Can I use this API in my production application?

Answer: Maybe. The current Zend_Cloud adapters have unit tests and have been used in full applications, including the simplecloudapi.org site. But they are currently considered pre-production quality, and the API itself may- and probably will- change during the Zend Framework proposal process. You should consider these caveats before using Zend_Cloud in production.

Question: What are the Simple Cloud API proposals?

Answer: The Simple Cloud API will be implemented in a new Zend Framework component called Zend_Cloud. The Zend Framework proposal process allows ZF components to mature until the component is ready for release, giving all community members a voice throughout the process.

Question: Are there interfaces for elastic compute cloud services in the Simple Cloud API?

Answer: No. The Simple Cloud API targets application services that can be used to write applications that take advantage of opportunities offered by elastic clouds. Much thought and effort has been put in to defining elastic cloud and other infrastructure oriented services; one of our goals is to bring more attention to cloud application services in the many cloud discussions currently underway.

Question: What dependencies are there for Zend_Cloud?

Answer: The Simple Cloud API adapters reside in the Zend_Cloud component and consume libraries for specific services under Zend_Service. There are no other dependencies.

Question: Is the Simple Cloud API a new service?

Answer: The Simple Cloud API is not a service; it is an API that exposes common operations in application services offered by different vendors, making it easier for PHP developers to build ‘cloud native’ applications.

Question: How can I take advantage of features my vendor offers that are not included in the Simple Cloud API?

Answer: The Simple Cloud API adapters consume parts of the API exposed by libraries for specific cloud application services. If you would like to take advantage of value-added vendor features, simply use the underlying library directly.