Google App Engine is Google’s answer to cloud computing, where applications are served from remote computing services that can be inexpensively and seamlessly scaled for availability, performance, and capacity.

The book’s audience is professional developers on a deadline. The reader is expected to have experience with Python, database management systems (DBMSs), and large-scale Web design and development.

The first two chapters cover the development tools needed to install Google App Engine on a workstation; they show how to download and install the tools, and then briefly explain them. The next two chapters give a brief overview of the Google App Engine framework, including the architecture of a typical application, and describe how to fill in the templates provided by the framework to create an application. The next two chapters cover persistent data management. Datastore provides database-like storage and retrieval, including transactions and queries. Memcaching provides key-value associations for database caching and session management. Other chapters cover user authentication, sending email, using third-party Web application programming interfaces (APIs), and manipulating graphic images. The final chapter covers diagnostic and logging management.

The writing style is terse. It gives only enough detail to describe how to use a feature in Google App Engine, but no more. There is little introductory text for concepts or rationales. However, there are numerous code examples and diagrams that are clear and illustrative. This style is both appropriate and necessary for the book’s goal. If you already have experience as a Web application developer, then this book will get you up to speed quickly.