Microsoft Application Server (deprecated) vs. Oracle GlassFish Server

Microsoft Application Server has been incredible this past year during COVID. Previously I would have said that we could go without it, but after this past season, I’m glad we have utilized it. Without having this software set up prior to COVID, we would have been in a tough situation. I mention COVID a lot because we were able to continue our work almost seamlessly this entire year.

Glassfish is well suited for large-scale cluster deployments and integrates well with F5 load balancers.

Incentivized

• Microsoft Application Server has proven to be highly reliable and effective at deploying to all of its clients.
• Application performance is surprisingly good and responsive even in bandwidth-constrained environments and generally very reliable.
• All software programs are manageable from a single location, even when bandwidth is limited.

• The product offers Java EE support.
• As the version supported by Oracle we have an extensive documentation, the Oracle GlassFish server online documentation library, patches ,and support from the supplier.
• Ease of use through the administration console.
• Integration with the NetBeans development interface.

Incentivized

• Some security hotfixes and general release updates require restarts.
• We wish it supported more applications out of the box.
• Thin client support would be great for MS Application Server.

Incentivized

• One of the areas where we found Glassfish adaptation difficult for our company was the lack of documentation and community forums covering important issues.
• We ran into a roadblock with OAuth 2.0 implementation and did not get great support on that issue.

Incentivized

I have found Microsoft Application Server to be incredibly easy to use. I have used dozens of similar programs and have always struggled to navigate through all the functions. So far I have been able to adapt and learn this software with ease. I rarely run into a problem that I wasn’t easily able to move forward on with a few tips.

Stability is one of the first things we consider when evaluating software. MS Application Server has been rock solid and has reduced the time that our IT staff dedicates to maintaining our legacy applications.

Incentivized

It has a similar feature to what Microsoft Application Server has but at a greater cost and also having to deal with another vendor when we could use a full Microsoft Stack for better training and support.

Incentivized

At the time we did a small proof of concept with both platforms and Oracle Glassfish had more intuitive administration and configuration functions

Incentivized

• Our ROI has been great since it has enabled our IT staff to have a central location to perform application updates which enables us to save time and money.
• Deployment is very easy since the internal applications that required constant updating are now updated in one central location.
• It's a lot easier to be within compliance protocols requirements.

Incentivized

• Glassfish which initially spun off from an Open Source project has a community edition which is free to use and offers great ROI.
• In comparison to cloud offerings like AWS and Google App Engine, Glassfish requires more cost upfront for installation and management.

Incentivized