At its Google I/O conference, Google announces version 1.5 of Google App Engine and discusses its plans to graduate the platform out of preview status to enterprise-grade quality.
Google
has announced a new version of its Google
App Engine public cloud platform and also preannounced plans to move the
service into enterprise-grade production mode in the latter half of 2011.
At
its Google I/O 2011 developer conference in San Francisco,
Google announced App Engine 1.5.0, which delivers new features such as
Backends, improvements to Task
Queues and support for the Google Go
programming language, among other new things. Google also said App Engine will
graduate out of its current Preview status in the second half of 2011.
In
a May 10 blog post, Greg D'Alesandre, senior product manager for Google App
Engine, said since Google
launched the cloud platform in 2008 it has grown significantly. Google App
Engine provides the ability to develop and host applications on Google's
infrastructure. More than 100,000 developers use App Engine every month to
deliver apps that dynamically scale with usage without the need to manage
hardware or software. App Engine now hosts more than 200,000 active apps that
serve over 1.5 billion site views daily.
D'Alesandre
said with Backends -- for both Python and Java -- App Engine can now support
applications classes of applications such as report generation apps and custom
search engines to be hosted on the platform. And improvements to Task Queues
allow for applications to control how tasks are executed and easily share the
work using the new REST-based APIs. "This API
access expands App Engine's compatibility with other on-premise and cloud
services, furthering our commitment to an open development platform,"
D'Alesandre said.
Moreover,
with the experimental runtime for the Go Programming Language, Google is making
an App
Engine SDK for Go available for download. "And we will soon enable
deployment of Go apps into the App Engine infrastructure," D'Alesandre said.
Go
is an open source, statically typed, compiled language with a dynamic and
lightweight feel. "It's also an interesting new option for App Engine because
Go apps will be compiled to native code, making Go a good choice for more
CPU-intensive tasks," D'Alesandre said. "As of today, the If you're interested
in starting early, sign up to be first through the door when we open it up to
early testers. If you'd like to learn more, read it about it on the Go Blog."
Meanwhile,
when App Engine graduates from preview status, Google will add additional
enterprise-grade features that allow the platform to support many more business
application scenarios. "Graduation from preview status also indicates a longer
term commitment by Google to the product and provides a deprecation policy
whereby we will support prior versions of product APIs for a guaranteed amount
of time, allowing applications written to prior API
specifications to continue to function," D'Alesandre said.
D'Alesandre
also said:
"We're
announcing these features and pricing changes in advance so that our customers
have time to review them. Adding business features will help App Engine meet a
broader set of needs and the new, more transparent pricing model will help
customers better align their App Engine investment with their business goals.
Learn more about these changes on the App Engine blog."
Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.
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