Q:

Buy a server for a chat application for Android?

Hello everyone I'm implementing a chat like viber, whats'up etc. I do not know how to handle the systems engineering part, I do not know which server to purchase, to take that power, in which nation take it (I am now in Italy), if you were to make a chat or a social network server that you take it? how to handle it? I want to use a photo hosting online (at least initially), I've heard of "google cloud hosting service", could do for me? I need virtually database mysql, apache server (whether or nearly invulnerable to attacks dos / ddos), low cost (I'm a student), and ease of use.
The chat uses php file, requests post / get, json and socket.
 Can you help me? Thank 

A:

There a lot of PAAS that might help you develop your application. PAAS is a form of cloud computing where instead of talking about servers, ram, hard drives, etc you simple talk about "resources" and providers of those "resources".
I suggest you take a look at Parse.com and Firebase. Firebase in particular is very well suited for real-time (i.e. chat) applications, and both have a free tier, wich allows you to get started without spending a dime (they will charge you only after you hit certain traffic)
Both of these are targeted to people that want to build mobile apps or web apps without going through the hassle of creating a backend server.
If you find that neither of these solutions works for you I'll recommend Heroku or Google App Engine (in that order) which allows you to control more of the backend server but it is still a lot simpler than handling your servers by yourself

