A new, free Udacity online course, Developing Scalable Apps with Google App Engine, helps Java developers learn how to build scalable App Engine applications. As you work through the course, you'll build a conference management application that lets users create and query conferences.



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The course starts with an entertaining introduction to Platform as a Service(PaaS). Magnus Hyttsten, Google Developer Advocate, discusses the evolution of server-side computing, from apps that could run on a computer under your desk, to applications that require the computing power of a data center. (This is not without disadvantages, as he points out. "It is no longer possible to warm your feet on the fan outlet.")



Urs Hölzle, Senior VP of infrastructure at Google, gives the background on Google Cloud Platform: "We built our internal cloud a long time ago, for our own needs. We had very large-scale applications, so we needed a very capable cloud, and now we're making our cloud available to everyone. In Cloud platform, App Engine is the one system that makes it really easy for you to start very small and then scale to a very large user base."



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After learning about the evolution of the data center and the need for scalability, you'll get right down to business and learn how to store data in the Datastore, use Memcache to speed up responses and cut down on Datastore quota usage, write queries, understand indexes, and use queues for tasks that execute outside front end requests.



Along the way, you'll build a backend App Engine application that uses Google Cloud Endpoints to expose its API to other applications.





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You'll learn how to implement Endpoints to make the API available externally, and how to use the Endpoints API from an Android application.



If you take this course, you'll not only learn about App Engine, but you'll use it behind the scenes too. Udacity uses App Engine to serve its online courses. Mike Sokolsky, Udacity co-founder and CTO, talks about Udacity's decision to use App Engine to host Udacity's MOOCs. He says, "It pushes you in the right direction. It pushes you to the best design practices for building a scalable application." And that's what this course aims to help you do, too.



You can take the course, Developing Scalable Applications with App Engine, at www.udacity.com/course/ud859.



The full course materials — all the videos, quizzes, and forums — are available for free for all students by selecting “View Courseware”. Personalized ongoing feedback and guidance from coaches is also available to anyone who chooses to enroll in Udacity’s guided program.



For more courses that Google and Udacity are developing together, see www.udacity.com/google.



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-Posted by Jocelyn Becker, Developer Advocate