TechCrunch cloud computing roundtable: Scaling apps on Facebook

At the TechCrunch Cloud Computing Roundtable on Friday in Mountain View, Calif., panelists discuss the difficulties in creating and scaling applications in the cloud. Scott Dietzen, Yahoo senior vice president of Communications Products, says it's unrealistic to think you can just throw apps out there and expect them to work perfectly--it takes a lot of work. Amazon CTO Werner Vogel believes apps immediately need the same scaling capabilities as the platforms they exist on, while Mike Schroepfer, VP of engineering at Facebook, explains how and why two different functions on Facebook--status updates and pictures--have a similar interface to the user but have completely different back ends.