When choosing an Application Server, prioritize the following features:
Scalability
High availability
Security
Ease of integration
Support for popular programming languages
A key factor in selecting an Application Server is scalability, ensuring that it can handle increasing workloads without sacrificing performance. High availability is crucial to keep applications running with minimal downtime. Security features, such as robust authentication and encryption, protect sensitive data and applications from threats. Ease of integration with other systems and platforms facilitates streamlined operations and productivity. Support for popular programming languages ensures development teams can easily build and deploy applications efficiently.
Enterprise-grade Application Servers typically have built-in capabilities for load balancing and resource management. The ability to efficiently manage server resources helps optimize performance even as demand grows. Consider how well the server integrates with your existing infrastructure, which can reduce time and cost during implementation. Having access to a strong community and technical support can be invaluable for troubleshooting and advancing server capabilities. Support for microservices and cloud-native environments can greatly enhance flexibility and adaptability in today’s dynamic IT landscapes.
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Not having been involved with application servers for a while I’d say that I’m probably not current, however my view would be that the application server needs to be fit for purpose. I would look for a modular architecture that allows you to implement only the components you need, making an implementation as lightweight as possible, the fullest support of any claimed industry standard (not just a checkbox exercise) and I would then look at the certification matrix for your intended applications that you wanted to run or build on it. Obviously the “ility” functions would be important in an enterprise scale deployment and by that I mean reliability, scalability, availability, etc. Finally I would look at the vitality of the platform and by that I mean who is using it, what the community of users is like, how engaged they are and what new features had been delivered recently either through the community or by the vendor.
Ease of automation might also be an important factor to consider and what skills exist in the organisation you wish to deploy into.
An application server is a middleware tier that features in below common enterprise stack.
--> Application
--> Middleware
--> Database
--> OS
--> VM
--> Server
--> Storage
Over the years Middleware tier has come to evolve from simple to complex software in the context of Distributed Applications.
Since the primary job of the middleware tier is to host runnable applications to serve business needs ranging from web based UI applications to messaging platform.
Depending of the nature of business and the type of requirements, the factors that we can consider imperative are numerous. However, the most common ones are
1. Product periodic evolvement catering to the latest available technologies, e.g.: JAVA/JDK, J2EE and etc...
2. Cost of the Product. Enterprise proprietory products like IBM Websphere, Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Glassfish and etc...
3. Cost of Support License. Support is important to ensure business contuinity or less business loss in the event of unwanted Server side, Client side known and new issues.
4. Certification at any level in the above enterprise stack and with respect to any deployable technology, is another aspect to keep into consideration when it comes into choosing the vendor type of application server, because for example one may want to use a certain J2EE technology which is not supported or is outdated or not yet certified.
The are common aspect most enterprise keep into consideration.
Having said that, there are other specific factors that are just as important. But then again it all depends on the nature of the business and the type of application simplicity or complexity.
I T Manager at a consumer goods company with 51-200 employees
Vendor
2016-08-21T23:39:34Z
Aug 21, 2016
Applications servers need to be provided with a best fit for purpose firstly. The right amount of memory, disk access and CPU's are very important, But Virtualisation sorts this one out. Its the performance testing and monitoring afterwards which counts. More CPUs added, Clustering if required etc. The load on servers will increase and then decreases and fluctuate over time. The virtualisation team needs to be accountable for some part in the overall stability and performance. But its a team effort including devteam + infrastructure team + Virtual team and end user acceptance testing which will provide the overall result to the business!
Manager Architecture at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Consultant
2016-08-02T17:02:37Z
Aug 2, 2016
The most important aspects to look for are:
Technicals - The Application Servers more or less offer the same features and functions, including Open Source. First, I would review the business requirements and SLA, related with applications to be supported by the Application Server, in order to define which features (clustering, messaging, security, etc.) has more weight than others. Then I use this prioritized list, to get a top Applications Servers best fit the business requirements.
Support - Again, based on the business requirements and SLA, we have to define the support service that we need from the Software Provider and/or support partner. Then evaluate which Application Server provider offer best support services to fit the business requirements and SLA.
Head - Non Functional Testing at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
2016-07-14T06:34:30Z
Jul 14, 2016
To answer in simple : Sizing and performance is the key prioirty (But subject to cost limitations)
Its totally depends on our SLA (Service Level Agreement) like Concurrent Users, Application performance, Network Bandwidth, Internal / External usage over internet. But it many cases it also matters what application server we are using. Example Tomcat has it limitation increase a JVM Size beyond certain limits for each node /instance. IBM WAS, Web-logic are high cost solutions
What is an application server and what purpose does it serve? As the years go by, technology becomes more and more complex. Applications are certainly no exception to this phenomenon. As a result, as time passes, the evolution of applications could make it difficult for them to be written and maintained by the organizations that use them. This is where application servers come into play. These servers are located at the midpoint of the data-processing network. The network operating...
When choosing an Application Server, prioritize the following features:
A key factor in selecting an Application Server is scalability, ensuring that it can handle increasing workloads without sacrificing performance. High availability is crucial to keep applications running with minimal downtime. Security features, such as robust authentication and encryption, protect sensitive data and applications from threats. Ease of integration with other systems and platforms facilitates streamlined operations and productivity. Support for popular programming languages ensures development teams can easily build and deploy applications efficiently.
Enterprise-grade Application Servers typically have built-in capabilities for load balancing and resource management. The ability to efficiently manage server resources helps optimize performance even as demand grows. Consider how well the server integrates with your existing infrastructure, which can reduce time and cost during implementation. Having access to a strong community and technical support can be invaluable for troubleshooting and advancing server capabilities. Support for microservices and cloud-native environments can greatly enhance flexibility and adaptability in today’s dynamic IT landscapes.
Not having been involved with application servers for a while I’d say that I’m probably not current, however my view would be that the application server needs to be fit for purpose. I would look for a modular architecture that allows you to implement only the components you need, making an implementation as lightweight as possible, the fullest support of any claimed industry standard (not just a checkbox exercise) and I would then look at the certification matrix for your intended applications that you wanted to run or build on it. Obviously the “ility” functions would be important in an enterprise scale deployment and by that I mean reliability, scalability, availability, etc. Finally I would look at the vitality of the platform and by that I mean who is using it, what the community of users is like, how engaged they are and what new features had been delivered recently either through the community or by the vendor.
Ease of automation might also be an important factor to consider and what skills exist in the organisation you wish to deploy into.
An application server is a middleware tier that features in below common enterprise stack.
--> Application
--> Middleware
--> Database
--> OS
--> VM
--> Server
--> Storage
Over the years Middleware tier has come to evolve from simple to complex software in the context of Distributed Applications.
Since the primary job of the middleware tier is to host runnable applications to serve business needs ranging from web based UI applications to messaging platform.
Depending of the nature of business and the type of requirements, the factors that we can consider imperative are numerous. However, the most common ones are
1. Product periodic evolvement catering to the latest available technologies, e.g.: JAVA/JDK, J2EE and etc...
2. Cost of the Product. Enterprise proprietory products like IBM Websphere, Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Glassfish and etc...
3. Cost of Support License. Support is important to ensure business contuinity or less business loss in the event of unwanted Server side, Client side known and new issues.
4. Certification at any level in the above enterprise stack and with respect to any deployable technology, is another aspect to keep into consideration when it comes into choosing the vendor type of application server, because for example one may want to use a certain J2EE technology which is not supported or is outdated or not yet certified.
The are common aspect most enterprise keep into consideration.
Having said that, there are other specific factors that are just as important. But then again it all depends on the nature of the business and the type of application simplicity or complexity.
Thank you.
--
Lam
Applications servers need to be provided with a best fit for purpose firstly. The right amount of memory, disk access and CPU's are very important, But Virtualisation sorts this one out. Its the performance testing and monitoring afterwards which counts. More CPUs added, Clustering if required etc. The load on servers will increase and then decreases and fluctuate over time. The virtualisation team needs to be accountable for some part in the overall stability and performance. But its a team effort including devteam + infrastructure team + Virtual team and end user acceptance testing which will provide the overall result to the business!
The most important aspects to look for are:
Technicals - The Application Servers more or less offer the same features and functions, including Open Source. First, I would review the business requirements and SLA, related with applications to be supported by the Application Server, in order to define which features (clustering, messaging, security, etc.) has more weight than others. Then I use this prioritized list, to get a top Applications Servers best fit the business requirements.
Support - Again, based on the business requirements and SLA, we have to define the support service that we need from the Software Provider and/or support partner. Then evaluate which Application Server provider offer best support services to fit the business requirements and SLA.
To answer in simple : Sizing and performance is the key prioirty (But subject to cost limitations)
Its totally depends on our SLA (Service Level Agreement) like Concurrent Users, Application performance, Network Bandwidth, Internal / External usage over internet. But it many cases it also matters what application server we are using. Example Tomcat has it limitation increase a JVM Size beyond certain limits for each node /instance. IBM WAS, Web-logic are high cost solutions
Documentation, size of the community around it. Real production efficiency proven records.
The server should be scale-able and stable. I would load it to check the stability and scale-ability so i would not worry in production at peak times.
we see how lightweight it is, since in world of docker and vms, we can launch multiple instances based on load elastically.
how well it fits the specific non-functional quality attribute requirements for the system it is being selected for