Google App Engine is a platform for building and hosting web applications on Google servers. It was first released as a beta version in April 2008. During its preview release, only free accounts are offered.[1] According to Google, a free account can use up to 500 MB of persistent storage and enough CPU and bandwidth for about 5 million page views a month. Google has also indicated its intentions to provide additional resources for purchasing in the future.
The engine enables creating databases (called datastores) and managing users, among other things. The user subsystem is an extension of Google's own. Users sign on to the App Engine by logging to their Google accounts. So the application does not concern itself with the creation of users, managing the user data itself, password recovery, etc. It also frees the developer of the application from having to deal with user security. This lowers the barrier to entry for new users of an application, removing the need for each user to register with any given App Engine site.
The new service competes with Amazon Web Services, a set of application services that enable web sites to host files and execute code on Amazon's servers. Many tech analysts have been predicting Google's entry into this field for years. "Google finally realizes it needs to be the web platform," Techdirt publisher Mike Masnick wrote. "The easier it is to develop and deploy highly scalable web applications, the more innovative and creative solutions we're going to start to see."[2]
As of its launch date, the only supported programming language is Python, as well as a limited version of the Django web framework. Google has indicated an intention to support more languages in the future.
Status
Registration of new accounts for Google App Engine is currently disabled due to high demand (as of May 2008). People who attempt to register are put on a waiting list.
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