What is the best method for continuous monitoring of a production App Engine application?

The best method for continuous monitoring of a production App Engine application is to configure Cloud Profiler in the application. Cloud Profiler is a fully managed service designed specifically for applications running on Google Cloud, including App Engine. It helps in continuously assessing the performance of applications by collecting and analyzing data regarding how resources are used over time.

By using Cloud Profiler, developers can gain insights into the performance of their applications, understand how different parts of their code consume resources, and identify bottlenecks in real-time. This allows for proactive optimization and improved performance, facilitating better resource allocation and cost management.

While the other options may demonstrate certain monitoring capabilities, they do not align as closely with the continuous monitoring needs of a production App Engine application. For example, while assessing CPU utilization via Cloud Monitoring can provide some performance insights, it doesn’t give the detailed profiling information necessary for deep analysis of application behavior. Similarly, installing a profiling tool in Compute Engine or running profiling commands manually does not integrate as seamlessly with the App Engine environment, potentially missing out on the benefits of a fully managed service designed for continuous operation.