Is Java On Deck For Google App Engine?

While working on the post that I just published about whether data that's stored in the cloud is really safe or not (answer: your mileage will vary), I came across a post from Michael Arrington that speculates on whether Google's forthcoming super secret announcement on April 7th is that Google's App Engine platform-as-a-service will support the Java programming language. Last week, during a cloud computing panel in NYC that I moderated (in front of an audience of Java developers), I asked Google App Engine product manager that exact question.

If you listen to the audio recording from that panel discussion, Koomen does in fact say that App Engine will support other languages and that they'll have an announcement coming pretty soon. App Engine currently supports Python. That was on Wednesday, March 18. Relative to March 18th, April 7th is just about right for "pretty soon."

So, I think that improves the odds that the announcement will involve App Engine. What's not clear is whether the next language to be supported by App Engine will be Java or not.

Incidentally, Koomen's remarks on the discussion panel came during the part of the conversation when we were talking about application portability. For example, let's say you have a custom application running on-premises that was written in Python. Is that application easily migrated into the cloud? The answer is not really. Based on what Koomen said, organizations should probably not be considering App Engine as a target for existing applications, even if those applications were written in a language that App Engine current supports or plans to support.

David Berlind is an editor-at-large with InformationWeek. David likes to write about emerging tech, new and social media, mobile tech, and things that go wrong. He can be reached at [email protected] and you also can find him on Twitter and other social networks (see the list below). David doesn't own any tech stocks. But, if he did, he'd probably buy some Salesforce.com and Amazon, given his belief in the principles of cloud computing and his hope that the stock market can't get much worse. Also, if you're an out-of-work IT professional or someone involved in the business of compliance, he wants to hear from you.

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