Setting Up A Secure And Scalable Laravel Application On Cloudways

If you’re a developer and not using laravel for application development, then you can’t be a developer at all! A developer always prefers laravel to build applications because of its elegant syntax, robust features and built-in security mechanisms.

Now if you’re having a laravel application, you’ll definitely want it to be fast, secure and scalable, right? If so, then what steps do you take to make that sure? Let’s tell you about CloudWays, the perfect hosting service provider for your laravel application that offers 2x performance guarantee and top-notch security.

With CloudWays, managed cloud hosting, you get a hassle-free experience for deploying, securing and scaling your Laravel application.

In this post, we’ll help you understand each step to set up a secure and scalable Laravel app on Cloudways. Ready?

So, Let’s dive in!

Step 1: Choosing the Right Cloudways Server

First things first! sChoosing the right server is really important for your Laravel app’s performance. Cloudways allows you to make choice from the top cloud providers like:

DigitalOcean: This server plan is best as far as affordability and ease of use is concerned
AWS: Perfect for managing websites with sudden high-traffic and enterprise-grade apps
Google Cloud: Excellent choice for reliability and global reach

Now, the most important question that every user asks himself, What to Consider When Choosing a Server?

See! Your first step should be to estimate your traffic. If you’ve just begun, then start with a small server plan and your plan automatically scales as it becomes bigger.
Second step is to check the resource needs! If you’re a developer, you should know that Laravel applications need at least 2GB RAM for smoother performance. But if you’re using a heavy background, then in that case more power is needed.

CloudWays, here lets you upgrade resources like RAM, CPU, storage instantly, ensuring smoother growth.

Step 2: Deploying Laravel on Cloudways

Now that you’ve picked the right server, let’s deploy your Laravel app.

First off, to launch a New Server >> You need to log into Cloudways >> Click “Launch” >> Select Laravel as your application.
Now, before making changes to the live application >> Use Cloudways’ staging environment to test the updates.
Next step, you need to enable SSH & Git! This allows you for seamless deployments >> Connect your GitHub or Bitbucket repository to push updates effortlessly.

Step 3: Configuring Security Best Practices

Security is always important be it wordpress website or a laravel application. Here’s how to keep your Laravel app safe:

Enable SSL certificate (HTTPS) >> Install a free Let’s Encrypt SSL in Cloudways to encrypt data and boost security.
You also need to use Cloudways WAF! It is a Web Application Firewall that filters out malicious traffic and prevents DDoS attacks.
After that, secure your database >> Update .env file with strong database credentials and disable public database access.
Laravel also provides rate limiting to prevent API abuse. So, set it up in routes/api.php.

Step 4: Optimizing Laravel Performance

You know it well! Nobody likes a slow website. So, how to sort it out? Here’s how you can sort out step-by-step by boosting your Laravel app’s speed.

Use Built-in Caching! Cloudways supports Redis, Varnish and Memcached for lightning-fast caching >> Then, optimize the database queries >> Use Object Cache Pro to improve query performance and reduce server load.
Leverage Queue Workers! Laravel queues handle background tasks like emails, notifications without slowing down requests.
Next, use CloudFlare CDN. Here, Cloudways integrates with Cloudflare Enterprise CDN to speed up your website content delivery worldwide.

Step 5: Managing Environment Variables & Application Settings

Next step is to run proper settings ensuring smoother application operation. So, here’s how you’re gonna do it:

First step here is to store the sensitive data securely >> Keep API keys, database credentials and other secrets inside the .env file.
Now, set up Cloudways cron jobs >> CloudWays automates scheduled tasks like clearing cache, sending emails or generating reports.
Use Redis or database-based sessions (Configure Queue drivers and session storage) for better performance.

Step 6: Automating Backups & Monitoring

Please do not wait for a disaster to strike! Automate your backups right away and keep an eye on the website performance.

First, enable automatic backups! Here, Cloudways lets you schedule backups daily, hourly, or even on-demand. >> You can use cloudways monitoring tools to get real-time data on CPU, RAM and database performance.
You can even set up alerts in order to get notified if your server resources are maxing out to prevent downtime.

Step 7: Scaling Laravel Application for Growth

Why Scaling? See! Scaling ensures your Laravel app can handle growing traffic without any issue, right? So, here’s how it happens:

You can instantly increase RAM, CPU and NVMe SSD storage from Cloudways’ dashboard.
You can even distribute traffic across multiple servers using load balancing.
Then set up MySQL replication for high availability and redundancy.

Step 8: Continuous Deployment & CI/CD Integration

Now what about the updates? Are the updates done manually? Not at all! See! That’s outdated. CloudWays automates this process with CI/CD integration.

First, use Git for version control >> Connect your GitHub Bitbucket repo and push updates easily.
Automate with Cloudways API! You can deploy updates without logging into the dashboard.
Now at last, set up CI/CD pipelines >> For that, use GitHub Actions or Bitbucket Pipelines for automated deployments.

Conclusion

Congratulations!

You’ve just set up a secure and scalable Laravel application on Cloudways. From hand-picking the right cloud server, deploying laravel with Git & SSH access, to securing your application with free Let’sEncrypt SSL certificate and more, you’ve learnt well how to optimize performance using caching, queue workers and CDN.

You also have learnt how to automate backups, monitor and scale instantly. You know how to set up CI/CD pipelines for seamless deployment.

With Cloudways’ managed hosting, you get a powerful, secure and scalable environment for your Laravel projects.

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Setting Up a Secure and Scalable Laravel Application on Cloudways