For those of us unfamiliar with the rapidly-changing technology available to businesses that want to establish a web presence, the terms “GAE/J” or “sandbox” may not mean much. However, Google App Engine is used by many customers who want to develop and host web applications. GAE is one of the most popular cloud-based platforms for businesses because it is relatively easy to use.
Google Uses Cloud Computing Platform
Like most Google products, GAE is designed to herd customers into the Google “pen”–a cloud-computing platform that “sandboxes,” or runs applications across multiple servers. Google hosts cloud apps in much the way that banks used to host checking accounts. Customers have free usage up to a certain point then pay for additional activity. This allows businesses to build their databases slowly or quickly, depending on their customer’s usage level.
Google App Engine was released in a preview format in 2008, and by 2011 it had blossomed into its present form. Google App Engine supports Java, Python, and Go languages, the most popular among application architects. Google’s platform is highly reliable, with very few outages. In fact, Google’s SLA or service-level agreement uptime is guaranteed at 99.95 percent, meaning business owners effectively never have to worry about their programs being down.
Restrictions of the Google App Engine
On the other hand, Google App Engine does have some restrictions. For one thing, Python apps must be “pure Python” and not based on C or Pyrex platforms. The timeout for requests is 60 seconds, a relatively short time for customers who are still operating on older computers or internet service provider servers. Google App Engine does not support “sticky sessions”. This means that when a customer begins a transaction, he or she may be routed to a different server to complete the transaction rather than being “stuck” to the original server. The advantage of sticky sessions is that they avoid timeouts based on long periods between input so that customers do not lose important information. With Google App Engine, businesses do not have this option for their customer applications.
New Updates
In an effort to keep Google App Engine on the cutting edge of technological advances, Google has recently added such updates as the Usage Report Download, which allows users to download up to 90 days of usage data in a CSV file. Another new update is the PyCrypto 2.6 support module for Python that allows third-party libraries to access a customer’s Python platform and apps.
Realizing that many business owners are not comfortable with the high-tech language, Google has attempted to streamline the use of Google App Engine with several user-friendly features. One recent innovation has been the hosting of a weekly chat session known as the Google Developers Live. This session is hosted in a Google + Hangout, or chat platform, where users can discuss the latest developments of Google App Engine with the creators of the programs and upgrades.
This is a guest post by Jared Browers. Jared Browers is proficient in GAE and teaches computer science in the Pacific Northwest. He suggests using the latest technology for his students, like etextbooks.
