> The API is actually Open Source, Apache 2.0 to be precise, that's how AppScale could get started implementing the App Engine model. So why do you think it's a vendor lock-in?
Its not trivial to create your own GAE-like implementation of the API with supporting infrastructure, so prior to AppScale, you had no options if you went down the rabbit hole too far. Now there are two options, but I wouldn't say just open sourcing the API solves all the issues... its the stupendous capacity/availability etc behind the API that people want to leverage in the case of Google.
I personally can't see many other vendors stepping up to write their own implementations of the API, with the supporting infrastructure... its not like the "proprietary" API is good/beneficial, or makes life significantly easier - at least, I didn't find that. I'd certainly prefer the tradeoff of maintaining my own VM/s versus the experiences I had with GAE.
Its not trivial to create your own GAE-like implementation of the API with supporting infrastructure, so prior to AppScale, you had no options if you went down the rabbit hole too far. Now there are two options, but I wouldn't say just open sourcing the API solves all the issues... its the stupendous capacity/availability etc behind the API that people want to leverage in the case of Google.
I personally can't see many other vendors stepping up to write their own implementations of the API, with the supporting infrastructure... its not like the "proprietary" API is good/beneficial, or makes life significantly easier - at least, I didn't find that. I'd certainly prefer the tradeoff of maintaining my own VM/s versus the experiences I had with GAE.