A new trend is emerging: global, distributed networks, offering to host and run your websites and web applications. In the case of the brand new Google App Engine service -- for free. Such networks emerged as the backbone infrastructure required for the operation of online service providers like Amazon and Google. At this point those existing networks of hundreds or thousands of servers (or a million, as the estimates for the number of physical machines at Google datacenters go) are being put to new uses -- like offering storage and processing services to clients. In contrast, dedicated content delivery networks like Akamai were created with the specific goal of selling those services, and they do not provide computing in the cloud.

Enter Google App Engine, recently unveiled to the wide public, or at least the first 10,000 of it fast enough to sign up for the closed beta. As with most things Google, the service is beta, free, and built around the Python programming language. In this initial stage of development, only a limited number of people get access; they receive 500MB of storage space and 5 million pageviews (10GB) per month. In the coming months Google will augment the offering by adding paid levels of the service, with more storage and a higher bandwidth cap.

The new service is attracting much attention, and some people in the know are already speculating that App Engine, which may have started as a Google in-house project, will be used as a lure to attract fresh, innovative software projects into the Google hold. Once a development team selects Google App Engine as the environment of choice for their web application, they remain locked in that platform -- a move will require significant code rewrites. The competing Amazon EC2 service is different: it allows developers to create virtual server instances, and leaves them the option of moving their applications easily to any Linux machine. Amazon C2, however, does not come with a free plan.

Traditional hosting companies, while keeping a close eye on the developments, are not likely to lose much sleep over the tresspassing of Google and Amazon into a territory that used to be strictly the domain of web hosting providers. There are two main reasons: first off, both App Engine and C2 are relatively new services, and as such they need more time to prove themselves as reliable substitutes of established hosting offerings. Second, both are intended for use by developers -- an important, but relatively small audience; both the legions of modest hosting accounts owners and the companies, renting many servers across various datacenters, will remain loyal clients of their providers for years to come. Or at least untill an intermidiary service makes computing in the cloud simple and user friendly, to the extent of being accessible by the regular internet user.

Copyright © 2008 DevStart, Inc. Permission is required to use the material on this page.