App Engine: Can Google Still Scale?
July 9, 2008
Computerworld’s Juan Carlos Perez wrote “Google Under Pressure as App Engine Requests Rise.” You can read the full story which appeared on July 7, 2008, here. Mr. Perez summarizes the demand for Google’s hosted application development environment. There are lots of developers, and many developers want more features. Google has rolled out a useful service, but there are some sleeping policemen on the development highway.
The most important point for me in Mr. Perez’s write up was:
App Engine is for applications of the sort Google develops: Web applications with mass appeal that don’t require long-running processes to, for example, crunch scientific data. App Engine is designed for database-backed Web applications like blogs, office productivity programs and social networking wares.
My take on this is that Google is cultivating developers and learning about developer needs, system behaviors, and which developers are Googley. Google won’t reveal how many developers are in its program, but like the early Gmail roll out, Google is managing demand.
The issue of scaling is moot. Google responds to demand. Because the GOOG has its hands on the knobs, the company can increase or decrease functions, limits, and file caps as it wishes. Technology is not the issue; building a developer base is.
Stephen Arnold, July 9, 2008
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