Tue 8 Apr 2008
The Google App Engine, Finally an Amazon competitor
Posted by Bashar under Amazon, Google, Technology
With more restrictions, and yet more compound solution, as opposed to the Amazon separately offered services that you have to combine, Google App Engine has just recently launched as the first serious threat to Amazon Web Services. It’s a great chance I guess that you get to run your web application on the “same system that powers Google applications”, but Google’s record in providing enterprise solutions does not speak well for it. Other limitations that I didn’t like is having to use Python, while the options are much more open with Amazon Web Services. Also, Amazon web services is giving you the option to use only the parts you need of the service, while Google App Engine is designed so that you host your whole application there. Not something I may want to do until I’m sure about it. I would’ve much preferred something similar to what Amazon is offering. Gives more flexibility, and it also means that I can go with one option, if I don’t like it, I can with some work switch to the other. The service is still in limited version for first 10,000 developers (already taken), and there is no pricing yet for full version. They’re still trying to get feedback and measure performance it seems.
For some more discussion of the service, checkout TechCrunch blog, and if you are interested, you should also subscribe to the new Google App Engine Blog, which surprisingly still has zero subscribers… Including me!
UPDATE: After going through the Google Videos on the new App Engine, I came to know I was wrong assuming it an Amazon Web Service competitor. The thing is, Google is aiming to provide a framework for people to easily deploy their apps without going through the normal deployment procedure hassles, in addition to utilizing and hosting their app on the same framework Google uses. It is not meant (as they mentioned) for doing heavy computation. With Amazon however, you can use their services for doing the heavy computation your normal host would not be able to handle. Google is not meant for this. It’s meant to host your normal application. Google App Engine may be suitable in cases where the app requires to expand in storage capacity. This will become clear when they announce their enterprise app engine packages.
Popularity: 38% [?]
April 8th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I wanna see example apps :/
April 9th, 2008 at 9:03 am
3baid: see this video
April 11th, 2008 at 7:03 am
I give-up. Googling and reading for two days now. What’s the point of this thing? can’t we just use JCreator or something to make programs?
April 11th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Kroms: Actually, I wasn’t 100% sure either. If you watch the Google Video you should get a better idea.
I thought it’s something like Amazon Web Service, but it’s different in purpose. Developing web apps usually involves several items like the web server (e.g., Apache), database (e.g., MySQL), and your application environment. Deploying the application once it’s done on production it a tedious job, and Google have provided an engine to facilitate the deployment to be so simple with one command. Also, you get to deploy and run it on the Google framework, utilizing same components Google use for their apps.
Read the update I will post.