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Moving The New York Times Games Platform to Google App Engine

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Re: Moving The New York Times Games Platform to Google App Engine

#2
"Due to the inelastic architecture of our AWS system, we needed to have the systems scaled up to handle our peak traffic at 10PM when the daily puzzle is published."

WT... I had to reread this to make sure I didnt misunderstand... why not work on making the current arhictecture elastic?! #cloudPorn

Re: Moving The New York Times Games Platform to Google App Engine

#3
post #2

"Due to the inelastic architecture of our AWS system, we needed to have the systems scaled up to handle our peak traffic at 10PM when the daily puzzle is published." WT... I had to reread this to make sure I didnt misunderstand... why not work on making the current arhictecture elastic?! #cloudPorn

Imo, one really killer bit is the first piece they mentioned:

"Google provides an SDK that enables users to run a suite of services along with an admin interface, database and caching layer with a single command."

I really wish AWS had a decent local dev story, rather than relying on 10 separate half-baked OSS solutions

Re: Moving The New York Times Games Platform to Google App Engine

#5
post #3
post #2

"Due to the inelastic architecture of our AWS system, we needed to have the systems scaled up to handle our peak traffic at 10PM when the daily puzzle is published." WT... I had to reread this to make sure I didnt misunderstand... why not work on making the current arhictecture elastic?! #cloudPorn

Imo, one really killer bit is the first piece they mentioned: "Google provides an SDK that enables users to run a suite of services along with an admin interface, database and caching layer with a single command." I really wish AWS had a decent local dev story, rather than relying on 10 separate half-baked OSS solutions

Have you tried the documentation for google's sdk? I stopped in disgust trying to track down what I needed and then trying to manage through multiple different admin interfaces.

Re: Moving The New York Times Games Platform to Google App Engine

#6
post #2

"Due to the inelastic architecture of our AWS system, we needed to have the systems scaled up to handle our peak traffic at 10PM when the daily puzzle is published." WT... I had to reread this to make sure I didnt misunderstand... why not work on making the current arhictecture elastic?! #cloudPorn

The "inelastic" might have been a shot at AWS. When pressed, the AWS people do use phrases like "pre-warming", "over provisioning" and "advance notice" around their ELB/ALB setup and ECS.

Google's cloud salespeople pitch that they don't require any of that.

Re: Moving The New York Times Games Platform to Google App Engine

#7
post #2

"Due to the inelastic architecture of our AWS system, we needed to have the systems scaled up to handle our peak traffic at 10PM when the daily puzzle is published." WT... I had to reread this to make sure I didnt misunderstand... why not work on making the current arhictecture elastic?! #cloudPorn

The main story here is probably this line: "The system is generally at that peak traffic for only a few minutes a day".

AWS charges by hour. Google by minute. If your peak traffic only last a few minutes, hourly billing is inflexible, simple as that.

Re: Moving The New York Times Games Platform to Google App Engine

#10
post #5
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imo, one really killer bit is the first piece they mentioned: "Google provides an SDK that enables users to run a suite of services along with an admin interface, database and caching layer with a single command." I really wish AWS had a decent local dev story, rather than relying on 10 separate half-baked OSS solutions

Have you tried the documentation for google's sdk? I stopped in disgust trying to track down what I needed and then trying to manage through multiple different admin interfaces.

I've been using google bits recently. I agree that the docs for e.g. all the python sdks need a lot of work.

That said, boto3 has thorough docs, but I wouldn't consider them particularly well organized. I can only really navigate AWS sdk docs because I already know what I want to do, and can google the specific terminology

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