Updated Google App Engine with Enterprise Accounts Is Fitter to Take On Amazon

Google is making a bolder move into cloud computing, launching a couple of newer services and some new offerings for enterprises. Overall, this should position Google's App Engine better against the likes of Amazon Web Services, though a direct comparison is still not fair.

The latest update to Google App engine comes with plenty of changes and new things. For one, it marks the move up to Python 2.7, up from Python 2.5, with all of the goodness this brings.

Some of the limitations have changed as well. Users can now store up to 10,000 files, from 3,000, and the file size limit for each is now 32MB, up from 16 MB. Some request durations have been pushed up to a 60-second timeout.

Users also get access to a couple of new features. For one, the Storage for Developers feature, which is now called simply Cloud Storage, has been graduated from Code Labs and is available to all. The Prediction API has also been graduated from Labs.

There is also the new Cloud SQL database, which is 'preview,' aka experimental, mode, introduced last week. Other preview releases are the Full-Text Search API and the Conversion API.

While the latest App Engine is great for existing users, Google has something to entice new ones as well, Google App Engine Premier Accounts aimed at enterprises and companies.

For a fixed monthly fee of $500, EUR366, subscribers get premium phone support, no limit on app creation and no minimum monthly fees.

More importantly, they get a Service Level Agreement guaranteeing 99.95 percent uptime, which is the biggest thing most enterprise customers ask for.

"When choosing a platform for your most critical business applications, we recognize that uptime guarantees, easy management and paid support are often just as important as product features. So today we’re launching Google App Engine premier accounts," Greg D'Alesandre from the App Engine team explained the decision.