What’s the rationale behind enterprise java stacks?
J2EE / Enterprise Java vendors today, no longer seem interested in selling just one product but an entire suite. Most vendors are today aggressively promoting an enterprise stack instead of just an application server or a framework.
Oracle Fusion Middleware, JBoss JEMS, SourceLabs SASH and many other such examples come to mind. While developers still seem to work with individual technologies, vendors it seems have moved to stacks.
The claim is that stacks reduce costs, risks and overall effort required to use the software in production
applications. However one hasn’t seen much stack related enthusiasm from the developer community. Some concerns about getting locked into a stack have also been expressed.
So the question is, do stacks really add value and do developers prefer using a stack? Add your comments below.
Related:
>> We don’t need these big heavy J2EE application servers
>> JBoss jBPM a core product of the JEMS suite
>> New open source software stack for enterprise web applications
>> Oracle Fusion Middleware at OpenWorld
The reason for stacks is not because the developers asked for it but becuase that’s the only way companies can make money in today’s market.
SASH stack consists of Apache Struts, Apache Axis, Spring Framework and Hibernate all of which are free and open source. The case is similar with JBoss.
Also stacks would be an easier idea to sell to non technical top management.
Oracle has 100s of mega clients and they would find it easy to sell a stack for $10x rather than selling just the application server for $X
The frameworks are coming… the applications developed before these AJAX frameworks and standards get established, are bound to be a mess.