With Appscale, does it mean I can deploy GAE applications on Xen VPS hosts without worrying about server maintenance?

Question

I'm pretty new to Appscale and GAE. Say I have a web application on GAE (offers hassle-free maintenance on server security etc), if I move the application to a Xen VPS host using Appscale, do I still enjoy hassle-free maintenance (since Appscale is based on GAE)?

Answer 1

No. GAE is two things - a platform, and a service. When you run your apps on Google's GAE infrastructure, Google is providing the service of keeping the infrastructure up and running. In exchange, you pay them (only if you use more than the free quota.) If you choose to install Appscale on your own hosts (doesn't matter if they are virtual or not), you will now have the job of keeping things running. In exchange, you save the money you would have been paying to Google.

This is no different than if you had a single HTML page you wanted to serve - you could pay a web hosting company to host it for you, hassle free, or you could install IIS or apache on your own computer, and serve it yourself.