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My thoughts on Google App Engine (from a usage perspective)
June 16, 2014

My thoughts on Google App Engine (from a usage perspective)

Paul Ford | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

all up to 1.9.6

Modules Used

  • GAE core along with guice (lightweight DI framework)

Overall Satisfaction with Google App Engine

Use is based on client or project needs. It is used mainly as a cloud based API service so that corporate enterprise systems can leverage it internally or with other service dependent applications.
  • Cloud based RESTful APIs
  • Access to big data resources for reporting and analytics
  • Custom Cloud web hosted applications
  • Cost, speed, ease of adoption
  • Implemented a custom company based web site using Vosao on GAE CMS
  • Administration and management - more Azure like portal
  • Better reporting on forecasted and actual usage via notifications.
  • Better documentation, examples. More use case centric documentation.
  • Effective employee adoption through ease of use.
  • Effective integration to other java based frameworks.
  • Time to market is very quick. Build, test, deploy and use.
  • The GAE Whitelist for java is an important resource to know what works and what does not. So use it. It would also be nice for Google to expand on items that are allowed on GAE platform.
  • Amazon Web Services,Microsoft Azure
  • These products really only intersect with a small footprint.
  • Azure is closest to what GAE provides as a PaaS
  • Azure is certainly making greater 'in-roads' on the enterprise cloud adoption side of the business. Google has still work to do to come close to Microsoft's ability to adapt for the enterprise
  • Now that GAE supports PHP, Python, Java and Go - it needs to expand its language use, such as C#, Ruby and others if it is to stay competitive in the market
  • Readily available
  • Ease of use
  • Cost effectiveness
  • Known entity (i.e. I've used it before)
  • Good access to Google other APIs from GAE.
  • Learning curve is relatively short.
  • Integration to Eclipse is awesome.
  • Integration with standard frameworks is getting better - I would not recommend loading entire spring framework on it, but aspects of it are more useful.

Using Google App Engine

3 - Project execution development
1 - 
  • Needs a good understanding of cloud based management
  • Understands GAE and some aspects of tuning for use case used.
  • Understands how to improvise a design for better GAE usage
  • Published cloud APIs
  • Published low maintenance web applications
  • Demonstration of how easy cloud based development can be
  • Demonstrates integration to other Google products and services
  • Photo sharing
  • Live sports stats collection, collation and reporting
  • API usage
  • Verification and validation services
  • APIs
  • Security frameworks

Evaluating Google App Engine and Competitors

  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Vendor Reputation
Product Usability is off the charts. More advanced usage is where it starts to get a little tricky
Well that all really depends on the client needs in my business. If they are a java/python shop then it is a start for GAE usage. If the client is willing or potentially needs integration to other Google products and services then that is also a plus. It all depends on the client needs, aspirations and current skill sets.