Google App engine(GAE)

What is GAE?

A cloud computing platform for developing and hosting web applications in Google managed data centers

App engine services

URL Fetch Service Mail Service Cache Service Image Manipulation Service Task Scheduling (Cron) Service Google Account Service

URL fetch service

Accessing data over internet Accessing data behind corporate firewalls Limits - only 10 asynchronous fetches - for asynchronous fetches use low level pro proprietary API - Max data fetch 1Meg

Mail service
Uses Java Mail API Limits - Attachments: only approved file types - Max mail size 1Meg

Cache service
Uses Memecache API Limits - Cannot dump keys/values - No support for asynchronous cache loading

Image manipulation service

Resizing, cropping, Flipping etc Type conversions Enhancements Limits - Max image output 1Meg

Task scheduling service

Regularly defined tasks Operate at regular intervals Operate at predefined times

Google account service

Authenticate users with Google accounts Authenticating users with open ID accounts -Still at experimental level

Usage quotas
Hard limits:

Free quotas:

Any restrictions?
Only virtual file systems Only read only access to the file systems on GAE Only subset of the classes from JRE SE (Java) No new threads(Java) No support for 'naked' domains A process on server to answer a request breaks down in 30 seconds

GAE Vs AWS

Pros and Cons

Pros: Fast and easy to develop for No maintenance effort needed Very generous free daily resources Very reasonable rates when increasing quota Easy and quick deployments

Cons:

Certain applications will be impossible to implement Controlled system will not allow some common libraries/frameworks to be used No relational database support May need some work to transition out of GAE if you need to

Thank you!