At my company we use all three. Tomcat works fine, but the admin tools make it difficult to admin if you have lots of machines. We use Tomcat for small projects. We use WebLogic (6.1 and 7.0) because the clustering works nicely and it is easy to admin large numbers of machines. Some of our HR software requires websphere which is my least favorite in that it is not free and is not as easy to admin large numbers of machines. My thought is get it free or get the best. If you code smartly you can use tomcat for a long time. Once you system gets larger than 10 machines you might want to look at WebLogic. The in memory session replication works really well so that you can cycle machines with out lossing session. Also the built in jdbc connection pooling is a nice add. You can build multi-pools to distrubute jdbc load or for high availablity. I haven't had more trouble with tomcat or WebLogic in terms of up time. They both have minor bugs that you can work around.
This is all running on Sun or Linux boxes. We use Oracle and postgresql. I don't care who makes the tool, just use the right one for the job.
You will have to weight your budget vs support vs ease of admin. Getting someone who knows how to operate WebLogic = easy. Getting a Tomcat ninja is a little harder. If you plan on sitting on the server your whole life then use what ever you want.
There is something to be said for being able to get away from the office and know that your admins have someone good to call if they get in trouble.
WebLogic support is great. If you are running a 24x7 application, it is worth it. If you have a small shop and down time isn't going to cost your head then try out tomcat. See how it does for you. Code smartly so that you can port if you need to.
There are other free app servers out there. I think HP released their app server for free. Oracle app server is SUPPOSED to be free. I have a feeling that going with Oracle will cost you even if they give the sever to you for free. Nothing is really free with Oracle.
My final bit of advise is don't over build. Spend your money wisely and get hardware.
Slashdot Mirror
At my company we use all three. Tomcat works fine, but the admin tools make it difficult to admin if you have lots of machines. We use Tomcat for small projects. We use WebLogic (6.1 and 7.0) because the clustering works nicely and it is easy to admin large numbers of machines. Some of our HR software requires websphere which is my least favorite in that it is not free and is not as easy to admin large numbers of machines. My thought is get it free or get the best. If you code smartly you can use tomcat for a long time. Once you system gets larger than 10 machines you might want to look at WebLogic. The in memory session replication works really well so that you can cycle machines with out lossing session. Also the built in jdbc connection pooling is a nice add. You can build multi-pools to distrubute jdbc load or for high availablity. I haven't had more trouble with tomcat or WebLogic in terms of up time. They both have minor bugs that you can work around. This is all running on Sun or Linux boxes. We use Oracle and postgresql. I don't care who makes the tool, just use the right one for the job. You will have to weight your budget vs support vs ease of admin. Getting someone who knows how to operate WebLogic = easy. Getting a Tomcat ninja is a little harder. If you plan on sitting on the server your whole life then use what ever you want. There is something to be said for being able to get away from the office and know that your admins have someone good to call if they get in trouble. WebLogic support is great. If you are running a 24x7 application, it is worth it. If you have a small shop and down time isn't going to cost your head then try out tomcat. See how it does for you. Code smartly so that you can port if you need to. There are other free app servers out there. I think HP released their app server for free. Oracle app server is SUPPOSED to be free. I have a feeling that going with Oracle will cost you even if they give the sever to you for free. Nothing is really free with Oracle. My final bit of advise is don't over build. Spend your money wisely and get hardware.