Java makes Google App Engine more mainstream

Corrected at 11:53 a.m. PDT. See below for details.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--In a case of converging technologies, Google App Engine took several steps toward the mainstream on its first birthday Tuesday at the same time that the concept of cloud computing in general is becoming more accepted.

Cloud computing presents applications as Internet-accessible services rather than software that runs on corporate servers or people's own PCs. It can mean anything from raw computing services that can be bolted together, as in the case of Amazon Web Services, to finished products such as the Picnik photo-editing site or SalesForce.com customer-management service. Google App Engine is an intermediate level, offering a general-purpose foundation.

Thus far, App Engine had been limited to Web applications written in the Python programming language favored internally at Google but not as much elsewhere. But on Tuesday, the top-requested App Engine feature, support for Java programs, arrived--albeit only in a preview form initially available only to the first 10,000 developers who sign up.

"It's the language of the enterprise," said Ryan Nichols, leader of product management and marketing at Appirio, a 140-person start-up that builds software for clients who want cloud computing applications. "It allows us to have a different level of conversation with our customers."

Graham Spencer, a Google engineering director, announces new features of Google App Engine at a Campfire One event Tuesday.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Google announced the Java support and a handful of other new App Engine features on its blog and at a Campfire One event for developers at its headquarters here. As with the regular App Engine service, use within certain limits is free, but developers must pay for heavy-duty App Engine use.

Cloud advocacy
The idea of cloud computing is catching on, and Google is a major proponent. Even Microsoft, whose twin cash cows of Windows and Office today are tethered to physical machines, plans cloud-based versions of both those products.

App Engine Product Manager Andrew Bowers demonstrated the creation of a basic application.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

About 150,000 developers have built 50,000 applications on App Engine so far, Google said, and those apps draw about 100 million page views per day. The most popular is BuddyPoke, which provides social networking sites with an application that people add and control avatars. It's got 35 million users, and meanwhile, BestBuy, eBay, and Forbes "have started to outsource pieces" of their computing operations to App Engine, said Graham Spencer, a Google engineering director.

Cloud computing can bring penalties such as primitive user interfaces, long waits for services to respond, and problems when the network is down or unavailable. In-house computing systems aren't infallible, but when cloud computing services fail, customers are beholden to another company's skills at restoring them.

But all these areas are being addressed, and cloud computing has some advantages, too. Online documents can more easily be shared or collaboratively authored. Applications are available from a variety of computers and mobile devices. And for those willing to yield control, another company bears the burdens of system management and data backup.

Google also announced a handful of other developments that make App Engine more useful for regular programmers:

• Through a feature called Secure Data Connector, App Engine can incorporate private data stored servers behind company firewalls, said App Engine Product Manager Andrew Bowers. For example, information from a company's sales database can be retrieved by App Engine and displayed in a Google Docs chart.

• Using a command called "cron," App Engine can perform some automated actions timed in advance to take place, such as collecting daily statistics and e-mailing them to an administrator, Bowers said.

• App Engine is getting better tools for import and, later this week, export, so it's easier to move information stored in conventional databases to App Engine and back, said App Engine Product Manager Mike Repass. For example, custom instructions can be applied to help convert the data.

Animesh Singh, an IT architect in IBM's cloud labs, moves a Google App Engine program to IBM's WebSphere.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Java: a natural fit
Sun Microsystems first released Java in 1995 as a way to add pizzazz to Web sites, but it caught on commercially as a way to run server software such as online banking applications. Java's design insulates software from the particulars of the hardware it's running on, so in a way building it into Google App Engine is a natural extension of the technology.

However, there are differences. On the plus side, running Java programs on App Engine means administrators won't have to worry about whether they have enough servers to handle a spike in traffic.

Kevin Gibbs, App Engine's technical leader

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

But because App Engine stores data with Google's BigTable technology rather than the conventional SQL databases, programmers will have to use newer interfaces such as Java Data Objects (JDO) or the Java Persistence API (JPA) rather than the older Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) standard, said Kevin Gibbs, App Engine's technical leader.

Google also brought another tool to bear in the Java support: Google Web Toolkit, which converts Java software into the JavaScript code that lets Web sites use to power interactive applications.

The new version 1.6 of the open-source GWT software lets programmers use the Eclipse programming tool to write a single Java application--both the back-end processing and the JavaScript Web interface--in one fell swoop, said Bowers, who also is a GWT program manager.

Google aims to comply with Java standards, though it offered cautionary words about the preliminary nature of App Engine's Java support. It hasn't passed Sun's Java certification tests, and Google wouldn't comment on whether it plans to do so or on whose Java foundation it actually uses under the covers.

Overall, programming Java on Google App Engine should look more familiar than not to Java programmers, Gibbs said. IBM, for example, demonstrated moving an App Engine Java program to its own WebSphere software using Big Blue's DB2 database.

"Hopefully, it'll be a matter of months when any Java developer can use it and be really satisfied," Gibbs said.

Corrected 11:53 a.m. PDT to note that the Java version of App Engine permits billing.

Spencer's presentation was temporarily derailed by a Windows blue screen of death, but a backup Mac system quickly filled in.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)

Rain forced Campfire One indoors and morphed real bonfires into these faux electric flames.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

In line with the Campfire One outdoors theme, this server running IBM WebSphere was perched on a stump.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

[someguy999]

oh come on... you honest expect us to believe that during your demo you had a blue screen and you just so coincidently happened ot have a mac next to you. that coincidentally was ready and able.

I'm not doubting a dev can get a windows box to crash... I'm not doubting a dev could get a mac box to crash either...

What I'm doubting is this wasnt a complete setup or framing.

LAME.

[Shankland]

If you're trying to show off your technical abilities in front of a developer-savvy audience, you don't stage an embarrassing screw-up in the middle of a presentation--one that's being recorded for YouTube broadcast, I might add. You do have a backup plan just in case, though.

The crash occurred while the machine was just showing a presentation--Google Docs in a browser most likely--not anything fancy.

[slecalvez]

Pretty sure the "Blue screen of death" was a setup... I'm a developer and haven't had a single BSofD for years...

[maverick_nick]

Yeah, seriously I can't remember getting a BSOD since... well let's just say it's been a very long time. My Vista machine is rock solid and despite running tons of software including Visual Studio, SQL Server, MySQL, Eclipse, a bunch of web browsers, and working the system pretty damn hard, I haven't had a single problem.

[RompStar_420]

If it was a setup, then it is LAME, even tho I am a Mac/Linux guy. It is LAME.

[zvonr]

Blue screens and kernel panics are not necessarily OS issues, most of the time they are caused by crappy X86 hardware at fault with non ECC memory and other crappy cheap components ....

[goWest99]

"and cloud computing has some advantages, too. Online documents can more easily be shared or collaboratively authored. Applications are available from a variety of computers and mobile devices"

How is that any different from traditional wide area networked computers?

You mention system maintenance and backups (which most deployers of webapps already get from their managed hosting provider).

So if you are going to rattle off the advantages of Cloud computing, why not mention the greatest differentiator: a promise of quick scalability ?

There is so much mis-information in the tech press right now on this thing called cloud computing, its a bit mind numbing.

[Shankland]

Fair point, though as I see it, scalability isn't guaranteed in cloud computing, even when it is one possible advantage. For services like AWS and App Engine, it's certainly part of the picture. But the scalability of Google Docs over Microsoft Office or Picnik over Photoshop is pretty irrelevant for most users at least, I suspect. There's a lot of definitional wiggle room, so one person's misinformation is another person's different perspective.

[cnet_jason]

I agree with goWest99: scalability is the key advantage of could computing.

Another minor point: Java was not intended "as a way to add pizzazz to Web sites". Are you joking? Please take the time to at least read the wikipedia page when summarizing the history of the technology that is the central point of your headline!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_(programming_language)#History

Thanks for reading.

[Shankland]

I wasn't describing its history from Oak days, I was describing how Sun initially marketed it and how the general public first was introduced to it.

[thefunkmyster]

I registered a few moments ago just to comment on this article, and no it's not about the retarded bsod gimmick...

I am so sick and tired of business and marketing people using the term "cloud computing" like it cures cancer. Where do you people get this stuff from?!?!?

Thank you for raping an already overused and misused buzz word.

[goWest99]

Shankland... re: your posting at 1:53 pm. Clever definitional switcher-roo on "users". In the case of Cloud computing, and particularly as it relates to the "users" of something like Google App engine (the thrust of your article), the relevant end users are not the people who use applications like Google docs. The end users are the CREATORS of those applications. As such, THOSE users are very much inclined to think about the scalability of their apps. And that means both downward and upward scalability.

I think you would agree that in the context of your article, "users" are the app creators.

And also, i never said scalability was guaranteed. I said it was the main promise of cloud services.

One other key differentiator you failed to mention (although its just an offshoot of scalability in general): metered usage and pricing.

[yacahuma]

java sucks and is overrated. What I waste of google time