The recently announced Google App Engine allows developers to build and host Python-based web applications for free. While you might think such an tool would be welcomed by the developer community, there is one huge drawback — Google lock-in.
In its current beta form, App Engine doesn't offer an easy way to move your apps off to another hosting service should you decide you like something else better. However Chris Anderson (no, not the editor of Wired, another Chris Anderson, this one of Grabbit fame) has created a set of tools that make it easy to host your Google App Engine creations on Amazon's EC2 service.
The site that Anderson set up, Appdrop.com, can host your projects now if you want, though he does note that “unlike Google's project, we make no claims to be able to scale beyond a small amount of traffic.”
But that's okay because most developers will be interested in Appdrop as a proof-of-concept project — proof that it is possible, with a little work, to move your Google App Engine projects away from Google's servers.
Given that Google generally avoids lock-in traps, we expect Google App Engine to offer a way to move apps out eventually. However, even if we're wrong and Google never does add an export feature, at least you know that there are ways around the hosting lock-in.
[via Waxy.org]
