Presuming that RightScale is within your budget (seems it might be) and presuming that RightScale does a seamless job scaling out Zynga's gaming apps (I don't play their games, but I'd guess they work well) and presuming that there is no impact on your development process (I don't have any sense for how RightScale functions..).... seems that it might work well for your purposes.
Personally, I think of Appengine as the Wild West of the Cloud... and I use it because I believe the potential rewards are worth the risks.. but, if I had monetary backing that would cover the costs of scaling out an app that dealt primarily with front-end users... I'd probably go with EC2 or some service that gave more stable 99th percentile performance (you pay for the stability, but it's worth it). Now, for heavy back end jobs.. I think Appengine is definitely worth a look. You can easily deal with intermittent failure.. since, failing once.. and succeeding two seconds later or waiting 2 seconds for a cold start is not a big deal. On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 8:18 PM, Shane <[email protected]> wrote: > Yes, we're definitely going to use RightScale with AWS if we take that > path. It takes away a lot of the headaches Eli mentioned. > > Shane > > On Dec 3, 5:03 am, Grzegorz Machniewski > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Do you know how Zynga's backend is set up on AWS? I would imagine it's > > > > pretty complex so, you have to have the system architects and > administrators > > to manage that. > > > > Zynga is using RightScale as a platform management software ( > http://www.rightscale.com/)... it automates management and scaling of the > > application. It's quite impressive solution, > > > > Regards > > G. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 6:34 PM, Eli Jones <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Maybe one of the Google developers will see this and can provide you > with > > > an informed answer.. but, if it slips through the cracks, you should > > > definitely ask during the IRC office hours (or just check #appengine on > > > irc.freenode.net, since someone from Google may be there at any time.) > > > > > If your app becomes popular on a Farmville scale, you'd have to be > prepared > > > to automatically start-up new instances and balance load across them. > Which > > > means you'd need to spend time and energy designing this sort of system > up > > > front. > > > > > Though, if you just plan on cranking up an Extra Large EC2 Instance and > > > running off of that (and maybe using SimpleDB on the back end).. and > dealing > > > with front end scaling issues later. You would probably be fine.. most > apps > > > do not become popular on the Farmville scale. SimpleDB will enforce a > > > little database discipline, and, if you do "blow up", you could > probably > > > figure out how to load balance over multiple static instances until you > > > cooked up some sort of automated scaling method. (Again, this depends > on > > > you using SimpleDB on the back-end.) > > > > > With Appengine, you avoid any sort of systems architecting (just code > as > > > fast as possible).. but you have to spend time coding ways to deal with > the > > > 99th percentile outlier Datastore issues. > > > > > Maybe there are some people here who have user facing apps who can > speak > > > about this from experience (I happily do backend processing where > retrying a > > > failed datastore operation or a failed cold start is no problem.. and > there > > > is no user on the other side to become frustrated.) > > > > > On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 1:10 AM, Shane <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > >> I know this has been asked one way or another before, but most of the > > >> main issues to do with GAE stability seem to have been asked around > > >> the end of 2008, early 2009. > > > > >> Basically, I have been arguing back and forth with my business partner > > >> about whether to use GAE or AWS for the back-end of our social game > > >> engine. I love GAE (Java) for so many reasons, and although it used > > >> to be unstable, it's pretty good now. The main argument in favour of > > >> AWS is the fact that AWS has proven itself with multiple games running > > >> tens of millions of active users per day. The obvious pin-up child > > >> for AWS is Zynga, with its Farmville peaking at 80+million DAU. And > > >> that's just one of the hugely successful games running on the AWS > > >> infrastructure. Remarkable achievement. > > > > >> So, one way or another it's KNOWN to work. GAE on the other hand > > >> doesn't have any examples that I could find doing these sorts of > > >> numbers. Not even close. So can I trust it? Is there a single > > >> example of a large social game with millions of Daily Active Users, > > >> using GAE? > > > > >> I look forward to your thoughts, but please also note, this is not > > >> intended to start any sort of flame war. I love both systems, but > > >> both have their positives and negatives, but I'm about to make an > > >> architectural decision that likely won't be undone moving forward. > > > > >> Regards, > > >> Shane > > > > >> -- > > >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups > > >> "Google App Engine" group. > > >> To post to this group, send email to > [email protected]. > > >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > >> [email protected]<google-appengine%[email protected]><google-appengine%2Bunsubscrib > [email protected]> > > >> . > > >> For more options, visit this group at > > >>http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en. > > > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups > > > "Google App Engine" group. > > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > . > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > > [email protected]<google-appengine%[email protected]><google-appengine%2Bunsubscrib > [email protected]> > > > . > > > For more options, visit this group at > > >http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en. > > > > -- > > Grzegorz Machniewski > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Google App Engine" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<google-appengine%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google App Engine" group. 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