Ruby on Rails: how to create a SaaS infrastructure?

Question

I am creating a Rails 3 application that I plan to provide as a subscription-based SaaS (Software as a Service) product. Basically, I want users to be able to hit my Sign Up page, create a new account and start using the software right away.

A good example of what I'm trying to accomplish is: http://www.getharvest.com/

Here is what I need for someone to sign up:

• MySQL database for them is created on the db server
• A subdomain is created (e.g. companyx.awesomeapp.com)
• A Rails application needs to know the appropriate subdomain-based connection database

Are there any good guides to customize this stuff? Even better, are there any services you can purchase to automate this type of thing? Ideally, I would just want to worry about writing my Rails application and then being able to use it on top of some huge Rails SaaS infrastructure.

(Also, I need a way to bill monthly, but I think this is a separate issue / problem.)

Answer 1

Heroku let you get up and run quickly. You can manage the infrastructure using the heroku gem. Here is the client documentation that should allow you to remotely manage heroku applications. Using heroku will allow you to scale applications on a separate level and allow you to focus on the application code rather than hardware.