Code in the Cloud

By: 
Mark C. Chu-Carroll
Published: 
2011
Pages: 
320
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Book Description

One of the most exciting recent changes in the computing world is cloud computing. Cloud computing is a dramatic shift in how applications are developed and used---and even in what applications are. With cloud computing, developers are no longer building applications that run on a user's desktop computer. Instead, they're building services on the network that can be used by thousands of users at the same time.

Cloud services are an exciting opportunity for developers: the cloud is a platform for creating services, a new kind of application that can reach more users, and provide those users with more capabilities than a desktop application ever could. Building applications as cloud services also makes them scalable: cloud applications can easily and smoothly adapt from running on a single computer for a single user to running on thousands of computers for millions of users.

Code in the Cloud will teach you what a cloud service is, and how it differs from traditional applications. It will show you how to build a cloud service, taking advantage of the services that AppEngine makes available to you, using iterative development of a simple application to guide you through the different aspects of AppEngine development, using either Python or Java.

Through the process of working on a simple application, you'll learn about how to build an application as a service; how to manage persistent data using AppEngine; how to build dynamic, interactive user interfaces that run in a user's web-browser; how to manage security in a web application; and how to interact with other services running in the AppEngine cloud.

Member Reviews: 

Review By: Robin Shinkle
03/30/2012

Code in the Cloud by Mark C. Chu-Carroll is an extremely informative book on programming in the cloud. It would be beneficial to programmers with intermediate to advanced skills in programming. Beginners or novices would struggle with the language and implementation of the processes that are described effectively in the book.

His writing style and presentation with diagrams are straightforward and easily understandable. Someone who does not already possess some knowledge of programming might gather from the introduction that this is close to a "Programming Cloud for Dummies." If so, that person would be in for a shock. It is not written in such a way that the reader will be able to do this on his or her own. Rather, it is intended for programmers who are already in the field and are looking to expand from client-server to cloud.

Chu-Carroll does a great job describing in detail the process from start to finish of making a chat-room-style service program to run off a Google App Engine. Not only does he outline the programming in a well-thought-out and followable manner, but by adding the personal blocks of problems he has encountered in his own experience, he also adds a depth and insight to the book that confronts issues that the reader may transfer to other areas of programming.

This is a great resource for the ever-expanding world of cloud-run applications, but this is an ever-changing space. We see the rapidly advancing field in our everyday lives. For example, Facebook, Salesforce, and others seem to make changes, tweak, and streamline on a weekly basis. I see this book becoming obsolete in the very near future.

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