Comments on: Google App Engine misfires

A morning outage in Google App Engine--a hosting service for Web application developers--was resolved around noon Pacific Thursday.

[klimpong]

"Google's cloud-computing service allows Web developers who can't afford to host their own applications a place to get their work online. Amazon Web Services does something similar."

It wouldn't hurt if the author checked out the following page to get an idea of what Google App Engine is:
http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/whatisgoogleappengine.html

[jb_iphone]

Well it is hard to complain about free services not working for 4 hours. If you need a program for urgent needs PAY for it.

[cvaldes1831]

Looking briefly at klimpong's link and some other links about Google App Engine, it appears that the free service is limited by quotas in the amount of resources it can use. Optionally, you can turn on billing which will increase the available resources to your app.

The unplanned shutdown appears to have affected everyone, those using free services as well as those who are billed for resources over the free quota limit (i.e., "paying customers").

[gggg sssss]

Fear the cloud I say unto you. Get thee hence and dont be so cheap and buy your own server.Sure there will be owntime, but at least you willknow .

[monkeyfun14]

And this is the main issue with the cloud. Depending on the other guy to make sure your stuff is up.

When your computer is down you have control over the situation. When theirs is on the other hand you don't

[cvaldes1831]

This is correct.

If you are running your own show, you can decree things like hot or warm spares and enforce the two-person rule on all production system tasks. And when it all breaks, you can stand over someone's shoulder and ask "when is it going to be fixed?" and the poor slob who is sweating profusely can't say that they have other more important customers and they'll get back to you later.

Cloud computing operators really don't have any ownership of responsibility, unlike people on your payroll. And it really isn't limited to cloud computing. It covers fundamental Internet services like DNS.

[stockyjoe]

Now what enterprise wants to fully trust everything runs on the cloud? I agree with gggg. If you are a "real" company you'll run your own servers and apps to contain your "own" private internal data.

If your mon and pop and need free email or remote hosting its great but otherwise...

[samerton]

exactry that , google is for who does not want or simply cannot afford their own infrastructure , I cannot believe ANYONE would want their LEGALLY BINDING customer data or BPM work in somewhere over the rainbow. DISCLAIMER : I AM A SYSADMIN in a WEB 2.0 based Telecom Italia architecture

[gfsdfge]

It seems none of the commenter?s are actual business owners. They seem to forget that payroll is far, far more expensive than the cloud will be. A whole lot riskier too. They will move to cloud computing or whatever the buzz word ends up being. This is just makes good economic/business sense. Most business folk feel their data is being held hostage by IT anyway. It doesn't matter if it's their own internal folks, or a local hosting facility, or in IBM's cloud. The business owner doesn't understand the difference and should not have to. They have a business to run. Most small banks have used hosted/shared mainframes for many many years without any difficulty. Look up Kirchman for example.

[cvaldes1831]

Cloud computing simply isn't ready for primetime. It's about ten years away from mainstream adoption. Oh yes, it's fine and dandy for pundits to discuss about right now (and the term "cloud" WILL go away), but for small-medium sized businesses, it's just another buzzword bingo square.