I too bet on Appengine, and so far that bet is paying off handsomely.
My company's latest service is built entirely on Appengine, and has
been very successful - we have hundreds of paying customers, and it is
becoming mission-critical. It's fair to say that Appengine support is
now our biggest concern.

As well as the issue in this thead, it seems that index rebuilding is
still a problem, and I'm guessing there are other issues too. So given
there are potential show-stoppers, anyone providing a commercial
application on Appengine needs support in minutes - not when Nick gets
back from his conference.

And if this isn't resolved before Azure launches, Google will lose the
commercial applications in droves.  IT managers are by nature risk-
averse, and a better support system will win against technical
superiority and a track record. Want proof? Just look at how
technically superior Linux doesn't make headway in the corporate
world, unless it's from Red Hat.

Red Hat offers paid support. Google needs to do this too.

I know this would be a big departure for Google - they seem to use the
same faceless group support system for all their properties. That's
fine for the hundreds of "I didn't get my SMS code" and "Ooooops I
just deleted my source code, how can I get it back" enquiries. But if
my company ever hits the rebuilding index problem, I'm going to look
really stupid when I tell our screaming sales manager that I've posted
to a group... and that's really all I can do.

What I'd like is to be able to go to a premium support page, enter my
credit card details for $100, and get a phone number or a chat session
with a real live engineer. I get my issue resolved, Google makes
money, and IT managers get the warm fuzzies about Appengine.

Finally Nick, if you want appengine to have the future it deserves,
please raise this issue with your management. If they don't respond,
just let me know your mobile number - $100 a call OK with you? ;)

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