Starting from this month Google App Engine will allow web developers to deploy Node.js web applications to its standard environment. The App Engine standard environment is nothing but container instances running on Google’s infrastructure. These containers previously supported runtimes in Java 7, Java 8, Python 2.7, Go and PHP. Node.js 8 is the new addition to this long list of environments.
Developers who always wanted a ready and quick platform to build web applications on Cloud scale with a very low cost to start or wanted to get rid of the burden of managing and provisioning infrastructure have found that Google App Engine is a very good choice. It has been a developer’s favorite due to its zero-config deployments, zero server management, and auto-scaling capabilities.
This move from Google brings in numerous advantages such as fast deployments and automatic scaling, better developing experience, and reliable security features.
Fast Deployment and Automatic scaling
The app Engine standard environment is known for it’s shorter deployment time. A basic Express.js application can be deployed under a minute with the standard environment. Not only that but App Engine allows the apps to automatically scale based on the incoming traffic to that application. For example, App Engine automatically scales to zero when there is no request made for that particular application. This allows developers to implement cost-effective measures while developing or deploying their applications.
Enhanced Developer Experience
Google has always been striving to provide a smoother developer experience with all its products. That’s also true for this new improvement to the App Engine. The new Node.js runtime comes with no language or API restrictions. This allows developers to choose npm modules of their choice. Along with this, App Engine also provides application logs and key performance indicators in Stackdriver, which takes care of Monitoring, logging, and diagnostics for applications on the Google Cloud Platform.
Reliable Security:
Updating the operating system or Node.js for any major or minor versions is a tedious task. App Engine takes care of all this by automatically handling all the updates required for your application to work smoothly with all the latest features. Not only that but App Engine’s automated one-click certificate generation allows developers to serve their application under a secure HTTPS URL with their own custom domain.
The relationship between Node.js and Google goes a long way beyond GCP as Node.js runs on V8, Google’s open source high-performance JavaScript engine. This recent collaboration between Node.js and Google also comes with better crafted node.js libraries that allow developers to use GCP products within their node.js applications. To try out all these new features on the App Engine you can visit their official website.
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