Web based systems typically require an investment in hardware, hosting and management to get them off the ground once they’re beyond a prototype. That is starting to change with things like Google’s App Engine being released.

The Google App Engine allows developers to create applications using Google’s framework, test them locally and then upload the applications into the Google virtual computing cloud (the same cloud infrastructure powering Google’s own applications). It provides integration capabilities with Google’s applications, build in online storage and a variety of other features to speed up launching an application.

While this sounds like the silver bullet of web apps, there are a number of reasons some companies won’t be using it.

First off, building a SaaS (software as a service) system that you’d like to make money with may not be possible (Google user account management is included but the capability to charge users and restrict access is not yet). Second applications are limited to specific technologies (they must be written in Python). This will make repurposing existing applications much more difficult and Python may not be the language of choice for most developers.

Google’s App Engine is a great first step into making systems scalability a simple infrastructure issue that developers can ignore but it will need to evolve to be deeply useful to most organizations.

If the phrases “fault tolerance” and “load balancer” sound all but foreign to you, you are not alone. I used to consider myself fairly well versed in technical jargon. It wasn’t until I started working in the Marketing Department at Lextech that I realized how much I didn’t know. There were times I felt like I was working in a distant land, where everyone dealt in a currency to which I didn’t have access.

With the knowledgeable Lextech team as my guide, I have picked up more technology tidbits in the last year than I imagined possible. Hopefully, these terms will help you navigate the technology jungle with a little more confidence.

fault tolerance: A system is built so that if a part fails the system functions properly until the broken part can be replaced. The value of designing a system with fault tolerance is that it will reduce the occurrences of unexpected down time.

load balancer: This is a device used to distribute a heavy work load across multiple computers. This technique enables you to efficiently serve more users and ensures that no one computer is overwhelmed or relied upon too heavily.

Software as a Service (SaaS): This is web-based software that provides some type of ongoing value. Customers pay by use, rather than buy it outright. An example of this would be an email marketing program, like Bronto.

web 2.0: This is a way to categorize a website. The powers that be tend to refer to it as the “next generation” of websites. There are no hard and fast rules that qualify a site as Web 2.0. That said, Web 2.0 sites can be identified by their increased emphasis on collaboration, design, functionality, and usability. One sure-fire sign you are looking at a Web 2.0 site is a high level of interactivity. Facebook is a good example.

Look for more terms in Part 2, coming soon! If you have a tech term you would like to know more about, leave a comment and I will try to address it in a future post.