Introduction
Google App Engine (GAE) is a platform-as-a-service product that provides web app developers and enterprises with access to Google’s scalable hosting and tier 1 internet service.
GAE requires that applications be written in Java or Python, store data in Google Bigtable and use the Google query language. Noncompliant applications require modification to use GAE.
GAE provides more infrastructure than other scalable hosting services, such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). GAE also eliminates some system administration and development tasks to make writing scalable applications easier.
Google provides GAE free up to a certain amount of use for the following resources:
processor (CPU)
storage
application programming interface (API) calls
concurrent requests
Users exceeding the per-day or per-minute rates can pay for more of these resources.
Benefits of Google App Engine
Here are the top Google App Engine advantages,
•Secure Framework
Google offers one of the most secure frameworks worldwide and it rarely allows any unauthorized access to its servers. Google assures your app’s availability to the globe as it packs impeccable privacy and security policies.
•Quick Marketing Time
Marketing a product is pivotal in today’s market and GAE facilitates the same. It helps you easily build,
Applications with rich features
A backend app within PaaS environment
Functional data storage, Cloud SQL, or NoSQL storage
•Simple Start
The app engine can easily start as there is no need for additional hardware or product to be purchased.
•Simple to Use
GAE integrates every tool you require for developing, testing, launching, and updating the apps.
•Quality Services and APIs
The engine packs numerous in-built services and APIs helping developers build quality and robust applications. The features comprise:
Application log access
SSL compatibility
Services for Page Speed
•Scalability
As Google builds the apps via Big Table, GFS and other techs available while utilizing GAE, its scalability increases.
Users merely need to prepare app codes and the testing part can be left to Google. Engineers and developers can easily scale their apps with best logging, management, and security features.
•Reliability and Performance
Google has been a household name for years now, so there is no denying about its performance and reliability.
•Cost Minimization
There is no need to hire additional engineers for managing your servers. The saved funds can be used for other business activities.
•Platform Independence
Migrating your data to other platforms does not require hefty tasks and there is also no dependency on GAE.
GAE challenges
•Lack of control – Although a managed infrastructure has advantages, if a problem occurs in the back-end infrastructure, the user is dependent on Google to fix it.
•Performance limits – CPU-intensive operations are slow and expensive to perform using GAE. This is because one physical server may be serving several separate, unrelated app engine users at once who need to share the CPU.
•Limited access – Developers have limited, read-only access to the GAE filesystem.
•Java limits -Java apps cannot create new threads and can only use a subset of the Java runtime environment standard edition classes.
What are GAE’s key features?
Key features of GAE include the following:
•API selection – GAE has several built-in APIs, including the following five:
Blobstore for serving large data objects;
GAE Cloud Storage for storing data objects;
Page Speed Service for automatically speeding up webpage load times;
URL Fetch Service to issue HTTP requests and receive responses for efficiency and scaling; and
Memcache for a fully managed in-memory data store.
•Managed infrastructure– Google manages the back-end infrastructure for users. This approach makes GAE a serverless platform and simplifies API management.
•Several programming languages – GAE supports a number of languages, including GO, PHP, Java, Python, NodeJS, .NET and Ruby. It also supports custom runtimes.
•Support for legacy runtimes– GAE supports legacy runtimes, which are versions of programming languages no longer maintained. Examples include Python 2.7, Java 8 and Go 1.11.
•Application diagnostics – GAE lets users record data and run diagnostics on applications to gauge performance.
•Security features – GAE enables users to define access policies with the GAE firewall and managed Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security certificates for free.
•Traffic splitting – GAE lets users route requests to different application versions.
•Versioning – Applications in Google App Engine function as a set of microservices that refer back to the main source code. Every time code is deployed to a service with the corresponding GAE configuration files, a version of that service is created.
Conclusion
Google App Engine offers a PaaS standard environment to build and deploy web applications on Google’s infrastructure.The Google service is a preferable choice for organizations as they do not have to worry about hosting and managing the application infrastructure. It helps ensure faster time to market, lets you focus on core business capabilities, and lets you efficiently manage the consecutive release cycle.To start with – Build your cloud strategy, create a GAE account, set up app engine SDK, write the application source code, test the application, and finally deploy it on the cloud.