It's definitely possible to spin up a Windows instance on EC2 and get it running. Many startups built on .NET do that today.
As for the sysadmin on the software side, I agree most .NET devs that want to build something probably have those skills. It's the hardware aspect that I think needed to be addressed.
The OP espoused the easy scalability of .NET using the Stackoverflow example without mentioning that they colocated with dedicated hardware.
good point. StackOverflow used physical boxes not virtual servers and that certainly makes scaling a database easier. On the other hand I currently host HireFlo on a single Rackspace cloudserver. I have 3 web apps, a SQL server instance, and 2 processors hosted on the same VS and it's working well so far. I'll definitely move SQL Server off to it's own box at some point though.
Re:Can you build a startup on .Net?
by radicalbyte on Monday April 16, 2012 @03:59PM
(#3849059)
Yes, you can spin an instance up and configure everything with Power Shell (if you have a lot of instances).
SQL Server's a little harder to setup but it scales really well vertically (unsurprising given its Enterprise origins). As with most databases it really needs to be installed on physical hardware for the best performance.
Running .NET is even simpler if you just use AppHarbor, no need to configure, update and maintain servers at all.
Jesus man, have some dignity. You're whoring that name around here like nobodies business.
Edit: Double-Jesus on a stick! I counted ~6 of YOUR references in this one thread. Pretty unimpressive.
Firing up a linux instance does require more sysadmin skills from the command line (this can be non programmer skills to some), compared to a gui based OS.
Disclaimer: I use linux myself but have spent enough years in the professional world to know that there are things that windows can do equally well, just don't ask it to do everything. A basic startup stack of IIS (included), mysql, and a framework (download asp.net MVC) doesn't take much setup.