SSL / TLS on Google App Engine Custom Domains

Using Wildcard Certificates signed by GoDaddy

SSL and TLS -- technologies used to encrypt and secure network transmissions -- and Custom Domains hosted on Google App Engine can be a challenge to configure.  This article describes the nuances and gotchas that can come up during the deployment of SSL certificates on Custom Domains hosted on Google App Engine.

Everything I needed to know about Software Architecture...I learned from Google App Engine

Software Architecture is a sweeping field of study with an immeasurable range of opinions on how best to approach its execution. While designing a cloud-hosted project involving Google App Engine, I came to realize that there are quite a few similarities between approaches to App Engine development and those applicable to Software Architecture, generally.

Below, I've explored a few concepts that get at my own observations of the connections between Google's cloud application platform and the larger school of thought. If you're familiar with one, but not the other, fear not! Descriptions of each App Engine component are provided, with an explanation of the corresponding architectural concept appended in italics.

Heartbleed, meet Google App Engine

The Heartbleed Overflow Issue is a bug that adversely affects network security. By exploiting this vulnerability, encrypted data may become compromised during transmission. Individuals responsible for hosting web applications that require a high level of security may find themselves scrambling to find ways to patch their servers so as to minimize Heartbleed's impact on their operations. That is, those individuals who aren't hosting their applications on Google App Engine.

Google Blog post describes KDA-supported project

KDA Principal and White Stratus Development Lead Wes Dean led proof-of-concept projects for Travis Perkins as a part of the UK company's efforts to innovate with Google. TP sought to go beyond more than just Gmail and Google Calendars.  

For project details, read Google's complete post on its Official Enterprise Blog by guest blogger JJ Van Oosten, Group CIO for Travis Perkins plc,* the largest supplier of building and home improvement materials in the United Kingdom, at: 

• http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2013/10/google-enterprise-brings-travis-perkins.html

Dean said, "I had the privilege of working with JJ and his team at TP's Northampton, UK corporate headquarters in April of 2013.  In addition to the technologies listed in JJ's post -- Google Apps, Google Chrome, and Google+ -- our work utilized Google Cloud Platform, including Google App Engine and Google Cloud SQL."

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Wes Dean, a Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialist and a Google Apps Trusted Tester, is Principal of KDA Web Technologies, a Google-Centric development firm and a Google Apps Authorized Reseller. To learn how Wes and KDA Web Technologies can help you, go to www.kdaweb.com.

* nothing written here is intended to imply, explicitly or implicitly, that Travis Perkins endorses or recommends White Stratus or KDA Web Technologies.  KDA Web Technologies was contracted by Google Apps Reseller White Stratus to complete the scope of work required by Travis Perkins.

Using PHP with MySQL on Google App Engine and Google Cloud SQL with file and database support

There was a post on the Caucho blog on the 12th of December about using their open source Quercus project to run PHP code on Google App Engine (GAE):

http://blog.caucho.com/2012/12/06/quercus-on-google-app-engine-20/#more-1100

This post lists several new tools that Quercus now provides, including:

• reading from and writing to files using Google's files-like API to store data on Google Cloud Storage using native file operations (i.e. the application doesn't know that what it's writing to "disk" isn't a disk at all)
• run SQL code on Google Cloud SQL with pdo_ and mysql_ functions mapped to Google Cloud SQL functions

These are very exciting new tools available to the PHP community to run PHP applications on Google App Engine with database support provided by Google Cloud SQL.  

Finally, as a proof of concept, the article demonstrates how to run the latest version of Wordpress on Google App Engine.

Quercus is provided by Caucho as Free / Open-Source Software solution; the package and examples can be downloaded from: https://github.com/diablonhn/quercus_on_gae_2

-- Wes Dean, a Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialist and a Google Apps Trusted Tester, is Principal of KDA Web Technologies, a Google Apps Authorized Reseller. To learn how Wes and KDA Web Technologies can help you, go to http://www.kdaweb.com/.