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Can JBoss/IONA Displace BEA/IBM in the Enterprise?

Posted by Cliff on from the topics-from-the-watercooler dept.

Anonymous queries: "It was recently announced that JBoss and IONA have entered into a partnership where IONA (who had their own J2EE certified application server) will now provide enterprise support for JBoss. Will relationships like this one allow open source projects to compete with and displace closed source commercial products. Are large enterprises likely to stop paying huge licensing fee's to BEA & IBM, and start deploying on JBoss with an enterprise support contracts from IONA."

2 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Isn't it the tool set as a whole? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Mod this guy up. He is absolutely correct. Two things that too many slashdotters miss in situations like this is that:

    1) The best technology rarely wins in the business world

    and its corrolary

    2) The lowest cost option is not always the lowest cost option

    First, its hardly arguable that JBoss is better than Websphere App Server. Even? Arguable, I don't think JBoss comes close, but this is opinion now. Even if it was, business decisions rarely come down to good technology. They hinge on "solutions" making "good business sense". You know what makes good business sense? Integration. IBM's WAS is just the beginning, there is a whole family of Websphere software that integrates into WAS/on top of WAS (not to mention Tivoli Security/Management software that integrates seamlessly). JBoss can't even hold a candle to this portfolio.

    Moreover, cost means a lot of things to a lot of people. Dollars are the least of it, to a major corporation cost is resources, time, efficiency/productivity, and least of all dollars.

    What happens when a software developer (such as JBoss) has a 3rd party supporting the package. Yes, you guessed it, good ole' pointing fingers. Customer: "IONA! MY JBOSS IS BROKEN FIX IT!", I can hear it now: IONA: "Well, that's a JBOSS software issue, open up a defect and get a fix.". Businesses (esp big enterprises) will not stand for this. What do you get when you buy IBM software with IBM support? You get full accountability. It's all IBM, you know why I know this? I've worked with and/or for IBM my whole life. This is one reason IBM consistently wins.

    Let's not even get into the cost analysis when you analyze software integration (e.g. how well IBM Business Intelligence/DB2 software integrates into WAS). Oh yes, WAS integrates well with Portal, Commerce, and other EAI tools. JBoss has no such functions. It's not even a competition, on any level, see, now it comes full circle.

  2. Re:Erosion, not conquering by brainlounge · · Score: 5, Interesting

    JBoss will erode away the lower ends of the J2EE spectrum for sure.

    That's already happening:

    - On development/integration machines. Our development is all done with JBoss. When we ship, we can cross-deploy to the customer's App Server, even to another OS quite seamlessly. Nothing you can do very easily without J2EE. (And you don't _really_ want to code on AIX machines, don't you?)

    - In low-cost projects. Non-business-critical applications with no need for huge administration and support. You really need the money for development, then.

    Being very sceptical in the first place, JBoss blew me away when I got to know it a few month ago. Really cool stuff. Technically, it plays in the same league like all the commercial ones.

    From documentation and support aspects ('support' meaning: calling a hotline, wait one hour, someones coming in, fixing your problem), JBoss is not a good choice. Support through internet forums etc. is quite good, though.
    But you can pay for documentation from "JBoss - The Company". Anyone ever read one of these? Are they good?