Building, Deploying, and Scaling Applications with Heroku from Salesforce

In this presentation, Julián Duque, Principal Developer Advocate at Heroku, demonstrates how developers can build, deploy, and scale applications using the Heroku platform. He introduces a fictitious company, Lumina Solar, which offers solar energy solutions and uses Heroku to manage its web applications. The architecture of Lumina Solar’s system is divided into two environments: staging for testing and production for live services. The application is split into two parts: an API connected to backend services and a UI built with modern web technologies like React and Node.js. Julián walks through the process of deploying the UI to Heroku’s Common Runtime using the Heroku dashboard, showing how developers can connect their GitHub repositories, set up automatic deployments, and manage scaling options for their applications.

Julián also explains the concept of “dynos,” which are the computational units where Heroku applications run. He demonstrates how to scale applications both vertically and horizontally, depending on the needs of the app, and introduces auto-scaling features that allow applications to automatically adjust based on traffic. This is particularly useful for handling high-traffic events like Black Friday sales. He also highlights Heroku’s built-in metrics dashboard, which provides insights into memory usage, response times, and other performance indicators. Developers can set up alerts for issues like failed requests or high response times, and these notifications can be sent to team members to ensure quick responses to potential problems.

The presentation also covers Heroku’s managed data services, such as Heroku Postgres, and how developers can easily provision databases for their applications. Julián demonstrates how to integrate third-party services like Papertrail for logging and Heroku Connect for syncing data between Heroku and Salesforce. He also touches on enterprise features like Private Spaces and Shield, which offer enhanced security and compliance for applications that need to meet standards like HIPAA or PCI. Finally, Julián shows how developers can use the Heroku CLI for managing applications, scaling, and deploying code, providing a flexible and powerful tool for those who prefer working in a terminal environment.