Google App Engine: The best recommendation for Startups

Some time ago Rodrigo Augosto began an entrepreneurial venture with two friends in which he was given the role of CTO, Chief Technical Officer.

So, for him, the challenging question was:

How can we build a platform to implement our solution, keeping in mind that they didn’t have enough budget to pay neither system administrators, nor servers, DNS, etc?

So he took some time investigating and testing a lot of platforms such as Amazon, Heroku and Google App Engine to decide on which would the best one to use and easy to handle….

…Even if you are not a “tech guy”.

First of all, a short explanation on PaaS, a category of cloud computing services. PaaS provides the entire infrastructure which is essential for software deployment (e.g. applications) and configuration settings without having to manage or control the host cloud infrastructure, including networks, servers, operating systems, storage and all the programming tools & applications. (This is the provider’s part)

The options

Much has been heard about Amazon and their services accommodated in the cloud, but Rodrigo’s recommendation is emphatic: forget about this alternative, for the simple reason that you will need someone to install operating systems, service packs, mount web servers, etc.

On the other hand there are Heroku and Google App Engine, which compete in the same field, taking a great advantage of Amazon Cloud Services. Thanks to that, you really only need to worry about programming your application and uploading it, really easy and handy!

The conclusion: The winner is …

Rodrigo’s recommendation goes directly to Google App Engine. Why?

• First of all, it comes from a giant like Google which up to the present day has always proven to be able to create great applications. Furthermore, it is specially designed to be integrated into other services which the majority of startups surely possess anyway, such as Google Apps.
• Second, it is clear that with this can save you loads of money, because it is something that will serve you a long time (perhaps forever) in hosting the web site or application of your startup. And this is exactly what we’re all looking for, right? You don’t need to waste your money paying for implementation, management and maintenance of systems, because all you need to do is upload the application.
• Third, it only supports two languages (Java and Python), unlike e.g. Heroku, which makes it a lot easier to handle, especially because these two are the languages that are widely spread and well supported by the platform!
• Fourth, this is actually worth an extra point: Python is awesome! It is incredibly powerful and scalable, there is no better one!
• Fifth, the creator of Python works with the Google App Engine team as well.
• Finally, it offers a great control panel that allows you to view everything that happens on the application in real time.

Get started now!

Now, if you would like to move forward, Rodrigo Augosto naturally suggests you use Boilerplate, (full disclosure) created by him, of course!  It is used to describe sections of code that can be reused over and over in new contexts or applications which provides good default values, reducing the need to specify program details in every project.