Until something about how it runs randomly makes your code take longer than 3 seconds to run, at which point Google kills the request.

> What is BigTable? I am comfortable thinking of it only in its abstract sense, an API that works, and I don’t know how, nor do I need to know how.

Until the way you’re using it causes it to take more than a few seconds to run, at which point Google kills the request.

There’s always reasons to care about how your app is run. Since Google will kill requests that take too long, and so far have zero tools for profiling why it was killed, what part of it was taking too long, why did it take too long, etc. this could become rather important. I’d think a tool for gauging how long DataStore requests take would be important since many people will be unfamiliar with changes to how they should think about their data when its not in a RDBMS.

I’m sure they’ll provide some tools at some point, but the fact is, for awhile yet, yes, we will probably still need to care about those things.

I’m still waiting for a App Engine like thing that gives me the freedom to move to another provider when I either outgrow one (maybe Google’s way of scaling doesn’t meet my needs), or when the price of staying there gets too high (whether monetary, or privacy policy, etc.). Lock-in is no fun, no matter how awesome the service might be. At least Google’s lock-in is probably somewhat minimal as their API’s are rather abstract, and its just as trivial to run most of an App Engine app elsewhere.

The Semantic Web is an idea whose time has come. AppEngine, EC2, et. al. will help to enable this framework of data sharing.

The AppEngine solves a general problem of running Web applications. I often see Subversion or Trac mentioned in blogs and articles as applications that can now be run more conveniently using virtual machines or computing clouds. My company, ProjectLocker (http://www.projectlocker.com), and some of our competitors, have been running these specific applications for years in a straightforward ASP model. Clouds or virtual machines still leave you with installation and configuration headaches and costs, while ProjectLocker and companies like us take all the pain out of configuring, administering, and backing up your source code, bug, and Wiki data. We already support continuous integration and are working on more value-added tools as well. And since we’re based on open source tools with standard data formats, it’s easy to pick up and move to us or from us if you don’t like where you are.

You do acknowledge that reliable, consistent hosting is a step in the right direction. The good old ASP model, when implemented properly, is less sexy than clouds and virtual machines but still provides a lot of value.

We now have Amazon and Google offering cloud services. Microsoft is seemingly absent, it’s clear that don’t have any idea about what to do (besides buying Yahoo hoping that they will know what to do). But, I’m tempted to ask: is there anything that requires the cloud to run in a proprietary environment? Of course, there’s a huge investment, and management, but it should be possible to implement something like this to run in an open environment.

Maybe someone will come up with a open source implementation, or some company will launch a product that allows people to implement their own “mini-clouds”, in such a way that these mini-clouds can discover and connect to each other, forming a bigger cloud where computing resources can be allocated and shared between applications. I don’t know. I think that’s a matter of time before someone does something like that.

I believe that the idea is important not because this “open cloud” may kill Google or Amazon. I don’t believe it will get to this point. But the existence of an open implementation creates more competition, lower the entry cost, and raise awareness in the market. It also allows people to experiment and create new business model. It’s good for everyone, and it’s kind of a proof that the market is mature.

Some corporations actually seem to have a fuck-people-over culture. It seems to be cultivated in the executive class. It isn’t cultivated in the programmer class. In corporations where programmers are subservient to executives, I think bad things can happen. This usually requires the underlings to feel desperate or ignorant or disinterested.

Or, sometimes, the underlings buy into this maximize-shareholder-value bullshit. But it’s just bullshit, and it demeans the individual’s ability to make choices.

I don’t fault them for this. I would be happy if I could run a publicly traded company (that does well). There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just something they have to do.

But I don’t believe for a second that Google does this out of the pure goodness of their hearts. Every last one of their management team is, after all, accountable to their share holders.

Sometimes they will do something that benefits many people. Maybe App Engine is one such thing. Maybe they won’t increase their hosting prices. Maybe they won’t make you buy an expensive SLA when your site has finally become successful and you need decent service levels the most. Maybe they won’t look into your traffic stats and know more about your visitors and your site traffic than you yourself do, before they approach you with an offer.

Maybe they won’t do any of this, in which case it would be wonderful.

But even then they would do this at least as a sort of PR thing, something that helps them with mind-share, brand awareness, brand ubiquity, etc. They are a publicly traded company. They can’t do anything without shareholder value in mind.