University of Washington Emerging Technology

Google App Engine

I was unable to find the presentation slides from Web 2.0 so here is something else I found that covers mostly the same thing.

Basics:

1. Google runs the web apps (just web apps only)
2. Handles the entire lifecycle of an app
3. App runs on Google Infrastructure

This is not a VM instance and not comparable to Amazon’s EC2; its just for web apps

This is an alternate to the traditional LAMP stack so instead you are using the same Google infrastructure that Google uses:

- GoogleIDs
- BigTable
- Google File System
- essentially you are using same building blocks as Google

NO batch cron jobs available

Scalable infrastructure
- Runs fault tolerant on both the web front end and persistence data store
- Automatic tuning of processing capabilities based on load
- Currently supports only Python. Google wants more feedback from community on what other programming languages they should support
- SDK is available so local development can emulate the Google platform. SDK is available for Linux, Mac, and Windows

Web based admin console provided

Scalable data store / persistence layer
- Called BigTable (this is not SQL)
- No relational databases here
- No joins on tables

There is Google SQL syntax to retrieve data called GQL almost identical to SQL however we didnt go through how it compared up with all the different CRUD operations in SQL.

Useful apis provided by the Google framework

1. Email Api - to send email
2. Http apis - to GET URIs - especially useful for calling webservices
3. Google Ids

No charge for technical preview however there is a quota on usage

When the service is ready for production use, then you pay for what you use only. Processing power and bandwidth will be charged on individual rates. The platform will automatically scale based on demand.

Pretty much everything about the platform is still being developed and of course they want the customers involved every step of the way. No date for when this will come out of technical preview.

YES, you can use GoogleIDs provided thru Google Apps for Edu or Domains. In fact you can sign up thru your own domain. I have done this for our test Google Apps for Education domain. I believe you can do this for team edition domains as well by going to http://appengine.google.com/a/ /. I am on a waiting list now.

Anyone know of a Python project on campus so we can do a trial study on this?

eTech Take Aways:

1. Lets try this out with a python project on campus to better understand Google’s hosting infrastructure.
2. Exploring outsourced application hosting with large vendors like Google and Amazon allows us to create more options and opportunities for our customers.

Anthony, Ravitz

Solar voltaic system installation. They have 13 cafes, organic, locally sources when possible. They have lots of trip reduction, alternative transportation plans and energy ideas.

So this talk is one you would expect at at USGBC conference, but I am glad it is here! So re use your paper coffee cup. Better yet, bring a mug with you and use that.

He is talking about three projects at the main campus

SpaceShip One, T-Rex, and Solar Project

Why Solar? Tech and innovation, Scale, Our brand, and our culture.

Lots of roofs, lots of sun, Proven tech available now. Google hearts technology, financial pay backs (7.5 year payback) great for our business and our planet, reduces peak demand, and why not?

How did they do it?
Got rebates from PG&E
what did they get?
largest commercial installation of solar in USA
1.6MS
9,212 Sharp photovolatic modules (208W)
Started with standard metal roofs and covered a bunch of buildings with them and even made some carports and added the panels.
He showed us a via tour in Google Earth and Google Sketch.

They have a lot of tar and gravel flat roofs and the got some panels that work with that surface.

The city of Mountainview worked with them on the landscaping, including a way to treat run off
Unicraft sunframe structure no roof, only panels. Looks pretty nice!

How does it all work?

strings fo 14 modueld make a circuite
circuirts combinde and feed to the inverter
inverter converts to AC, and if they ever produce more than they use, they can feed it back into the grid.

They only lose %4 of conversion from DC to AC

lessons learned:
Real solution available now
Makes financial sense
installation relatively straight forward
Working over Google engineers is challenging
Boost employee moral
Taking action drives market

Looking ahead
More companies will go solar
larger installations
Financing models make solar more accessible
Will Congress renew Federal Investment Tax Credit after 2007
More states providing financial incentives
Increased manufacturing production - lowers costs

Beginning March 19, 2007, the search function on www.washington.edu pages will be expanded to search uwmedicine.org, uwnews.org, henryart.org, uwtv.org, and other UW related domains, as well as the washington.edu domain.

Increasing the coverage of the search was prompted by the growing number of UW-related sites not in the washington.edu domain. The new capability is made possible by the Google Custom Search feature, which recently became available.

Questions about the UW search can be sent to help@washington.edu

Many Thanks to Melody Winkle and Frank Fujimoto for the work to make this happen!

We are working on a project to provide better email services for alumni and former students. Right now we are looking very closely and kicking the tires on two programs, Google Apps for Education and Windows Live @ Edu. Both services are based on their current offerings to the general public, but take the features a step forward by utilizing email addresses that end in washington.edu (e.g, alumna@husky.washington.edu) and branding the web pages associated with the services by including UW images, logos and links. Additionally, each feature 2 Gigabytes of storage, calendaring, instant messaging and customized home pages.

For now we are comparing the two programs with end users test cases, where we step through the process for using each product and evaluate and compare the experiences. At the same time, we look at what happens behind-the-scenes to understand how to support and maintain each program. Additionally, we are analyzing such factors as security, privacy, legal and policy factors associated with outsourcing this type of service. And of course, we are working on a plan to communicate with students, faculty, staff, and administrators how the service will work and when it will be available.

We welcome any comments, questions or suggestions you might have on this project. You may leave a comment here on this post, or contact me, Bill Corrigan, at bcorr at washington dot edu. Please come back to this site from time to time for more information about this or any of our other projects.