Just to throw a spanner in the works....
Gartner_Calls_Java_Application_Servers_a_Rip_OffGartner Calls Java
Application Servers a Rip-Off
By Maureen O'Gara
Gartner the other day delivered itself of the opinion that customers had
overspent on application servers to the tune of a billion dollars in the
last three years or so and that, if they didn't stop letting themselves be
sweet talked by a bunch of smooth operators, they stood to throw away
another $2 billion on the stuff in the next two years.
Warming to the subject, it wondered if this might be "the last surviving
excess of the dot.com era."
Of course Gartner had to withstand some jeers from the peanut gallery about
its epiphany about users being gulled into buying more than they needed as
though that wasn't an industry staple. Microsoft, however, waved the
revelation around like a beacon lamp.
See, the Gartner findings knock Sun, IBM and BEA, which serves Microsoft's
purposes just fine. Microsoft doesn't have an application server properly
speaking. It's always figured that the functionality should be part of the
operating system. Gartner has always taken Microsoft to task for not
labeling the middleware the way Gartner advises and calls the appellation,
Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), "unfortunate."
Microsoft's lead product manager for the .NET Framework John Montgomery
retorts, "We've got a name. It's called Windows."
Anyway, sounding much like Microsoft, Gartner maintains that "application
server is a function, not a product" and that it's not identical with Java 2
Enterprise Edition, the misconception that's supposedly behind a lot of the
overspending, another truism that resonates with Microsoft because - God
knows - its stuff isn't J2EE or Java but does the application server trick.
Gartner claims that most applications only call for a low-end application
server - if for no other reason than what's being run are only servlets and
Java Server Pages, not Enterprise Java Beans - in fact during the past three
years 80% of Java deployments made no use of EJB whatsoever, yet 60% of the
deployed Java application servers are pricey, high-end, EJB-capable servers.
Even allowing for servlet-based apps that are technically advanced enough to
use high-end features like messaging, integration or data caching, that
still leaves more than 30% of all J2EE applications deployed in the last
three years as having paid the high cost of a high-end application server
unnecessarily.
Going forward, Gartner says, the picture remains pretty much the same. By
2003, it estimates, 60% of all new J2EE application code will remain
JSP/servlet-only, while at least 70% of new applications will deployed on
high-end application servers.
Meanwhile, a perfectly suitable basic application server can cost 10 times
less than the high-priced spread, Gartner says - and it's not even figuring
in administration, maintenance and professional services - and include
En-hydra, WebLogic Express, iPlanet Web Server and WebSphere Standard
Edition. In some cases, the low-end widgetry is nearly free.
Gartner figures they suit 80% of the projects in a typical mid-size
enterprise. It does not recommend them for applications likely to be in
production for more than two years or for ones that support more than a
thousand concurrent users.
The research house says in practice companies have tried to standardize on a
single application platform and squeeze all their development efforts into
the high-end platform. As a result, project costs are increased and the
power of the overall application is reduced because the high-end widgetry is
only good for OLTP stuff.
Gartner notes that "Sun J2EE certification is not available for servlet-only
platforms (EJB support is required for certification), which forces both
vendors and users to interpret J2EE and EJB as always linked and sometimes
synonymous," holding that fancy footwork partially responsible for the
overbuying.
It recommends using different application servers for JSP/servlets and EJB
components.
IBM never called back with a reaction to the Gartner study but BEA managed
to put John Kiger, its director of product marketing for its E-Commerce
Server Division, on the phone. Kiger didn't dispute Gartner's findings. He
just said that customers should be credited with making a more informed
decision than Gartner allows and that Gartner is underestimating the value
of a common platform in terms of cost of ownership and investment
protection. Back to Headlines
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