Agreed. I realize AppEngine != EC2. Amazon is more a set of components, EC2 being one that you are right you have to setup the systems to scale yourself. In actuality, you will probably need EC2, SimpleDB, S3 etc.
I was trying to make the point that it makes Google AppEngine much less of an advantage over other services in the market even ones you mention which provide these managed components (many times without the restrictions of GAE, I am a big fan of GAE and a little irked at the pricing). Media Temple gs has some of what you mention.
But I believe a large reason people were even considering using Google is the great startup potential to scale up and get lots for free at the beginning. No startup can run with 1GB per day on a single digg, reddit, slashdotting at all without paying. It gave about 3-6 months of runway before for growth now it isn't really even a month of free for a reasonably known application or content.
I was trying to make the point that it makes Google AppEngine much less of an advantage over other services in the market even ones you mention which provide these managed components (many times without the restrictions of GAE, I am a big fan of GAE and a little irked at the pricing). Media Temple gs has some of what you mention.
But I believe a large reason people were even considering using Google is the great startup potential to scale up and get lots for free at the beginning. No startup can run with 1GB per day on a single digg, reddit, slashdotting at all without paying. It gave about 3-6 months of runway before for growth now it isn't really even a month of free for a reasonably known application or content.