> So, you're saying Macromedia is _purposely_ trying to get out
> of being an application server for low-end, shared hosting? And
> they're doing this by making it prohibitively expensive for
> hosting providers. I think you're onto something.
No, I don't think they're purposely trying to get out of anything. I think
they're pursuing the share of the market that makes the most sense for them
to gain, from their perspective. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised
if they spent a disproportionate amount supporting ISPs' problems, with very
little visible return. The historical direction of CF from version 3 onward
has been aimed at the enterprise as best Allaire could, with the addition of
shared memory, caching functionality, LDAP and X.500 security integration,
and server clustering. It was never really intended for use in a
shared-server environment:
- there's only one server instance in memory,
- it's always favored performance over stability, which is fine for
dedicated applications, but not so good when any Joe can run code on a given
box for a $50/year fee
- individual applications can't have performance constraints placed on them
Furthermore, had Allaire spent any time addressing those points, the core
product would probably have suffered as a result. Now, although Allaire
hadn't made significantly more per unit selling CF to ISPs as opposed to
others, I'll bet they've had to field more support calls as a result of
those ISP sales, when someone wrote code without locks, or with infinite
loops, or some other stupid server-crashing trick.
Consider this: what's one of the more noticeable additions to CF 5
Enterprise? All of the "Harvest" components, which should significantly
lower the costs for managing multiple applications per server. If they're
going to release something which lowers the ISP's cost of business, why
shouldn't MM feel entitled to a piece of that, especially given the amount
of programming effort that it entailed?
Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software
http://www.figleaf.com/
voice: (202) 797-5496
fax: (202) 797-5444
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