Summary

In this chapter, we have looked at how we can improve the performance of our code and our servers to get more out of our hardware. We have also looked into a number of hosting and scaling options to give us more resources when needed, should our site become more popular, or have a temporary traffic spike. Caching systems can be used to reduce database and file system calls, by keeping some information in memory, and as we saw, this can be integrated into a PHP application. We also looked at speeding things up for the user with Content Delivery Networks, and queuing processes into a message queue, which can be processed when convenient, or by another server with resources available.

We now have our social network developed with a wealth of features, hosted online, optimized for search engines, and attracting traffic through online marketing, and finally, optimized in terms of performance and scalability. Where our social network goes next is really up to you; extend it to meet your needs, improve it, and hopefully, your site will prosper. I look forward to seeing your new social networking sites on the Web!