Ask YC: The Business Side of using AppEngine versus Desktop Programming

Here's the story: Through a friend of mine, I'm a key prospect for a developer contract position to produce software for a company (what this software does I am not permitted to discuss) I was going to develop this in .NET, however a buddy of mine who I discovered to have a job at Google got me into AppEngine, and I think as far as logistics go, using GAE, and setting up the company domain on Google Apps is a great idea. I honestly don't know how many companies are already using GAE for things, even if it's a very small process but after looking at the company website I think they could really benefit from making use of the web technologies out there. Logistically, it's a win-win situation. I plan to develop this locally using the SDK and even deploy it on a local Intranet in the off chance that something horrible happens to GAE. The benefits here is in favor mostly of field technicians (which this company has a lot of, maybe 5 field techs per housed employee). Developing software on GAE will mean updates will be instantaneously accessed when I upload code changes, and those who need them wont have to download them or come back to the office to obtain a new disk (since some guys have to travel out to other states). So from a development standpoint, I think this will make things easy for everyone involved and I've gotten some support from developer friends of mine who think it's a great endeavor logistically. However I have no idea how this will fare as far as business is concerned. Ideally, I'd like to think this is a huge money saver as it will eliminate the need for an extra server to handle bandwidth from developers downloading software udpates, as well as a cost to manage this connection from an ISP, which my early estimates would probably mean getting a T1. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.