[nickb]

Nice analogy but like all analogies, it's too simplistic and flawed. You left out one important and critical part: the hypothetical passenger in your example is tied to a specific plane/airline. If you don't like your pilot or plane type, you cannot move to a different airline or request a different plane or a different pilot since you're chained to the specific plane.

Due to Google App Engine's API lock-in, you're stuck with them as a provider... quite possibly forever due to heavy BigTable dependency.

Even though I'm a huge fan of cloud computing, I'd rather use a strategy that uses platforms/planes that are built from reusable parts and allow you to switch your plane/airline provider as you please. Don't like Delta? Just go to AA counter and you don't have to change your luggage, clothing etc.

Until there's a second, GAE-compatible, ISV provider that offers full compatibility with GAE, I'd avoid GAE like a plague.

[drcode]

I'm sorry sir, but if my pilot is stuck in a thunderstorm and I don't think he knows what he's doing, I can't "request a different plane."

[jerf]

It's a metaphor, not a description or some sort of iron law of physics. If I was on Google App Engine right now and there was a competitor that I could switch too, then I damn well could be up, especially if I took the opportunity to keep both options actively available for myself. No matter how hard "switching planes in midair" might be, it's just a metaphor.

[eggnet]

Yes but if you survive the flight you can switch after you land.

[netsp]

That's not a fair comparison. You can't switch mid flight or mid cloud crash. But you can evaluate safety records every time you feel inclined and swap your airlines at some point.

If GAE fails to live up to the better-then-DIY-on-average promise, you can't leave.

[imajes]

or at least carry a parachute. business continuity plans should really be part of the spec for everyone who's making money from their app.

[nickb]

Does that account for 6 hours of downtime with minimal information as to what's going on? Good luck with that!

[rjurney]

Actually, if this thing works then there is no longer an API lock-in with Google App Engine: http://code.google.com/p/appscale/

Assuming you can still dump your data out of Googlage?

[jshen]

all understanding of the real world is simplistic and flawed. Even your analogy because there is no good cloud as service provided that offers anything as good as big table for distributed storage plus map reduce.

[rapind]

I think a better analogy for cloud computing is electricity. For mission critical applications investing the time and effort into a power / app backup is probably a good idea, but the onus is on us.

[vorador]

Actually, as django abstracts the GAE-api, there's still a way to escape.