WebSphere - It just works
Overall Satisfaction with WebSphere Application Server
I implement many products that run on top of WebSphere across a broad range of industries. They are most often used to host company wide applications and are the workhorse of many enterprises. The ability to host applications on just about any OS platform is key to its usage.
- Performance, and security. The ability to integrate these both into your application platform are most important to me.
- The ability to run on all major OS thereby not forcing a client t to have to decide to support a platform they currently do not have.
- Integration with (BM's version of ) Apache is very strong and easy to manage.
- Less a problem of the platform but often software developed to run on top of WebSphere is tied to specific versions of it, making it difficult to have a central WebSphere farm that can service all your application needs.
- The install is now fully graphical, but the configuration still requires a lot of manipulating of command line and xml/properties files. This makes it almost impossible for a novice to set up and configure; companies have to hire experienced consultants to get the job done.
- As a platform it is extremely stable once set up and configured, so ongoing support of the product is not that intensive. Most of the work is around the applications running on top of the platform. I like a product that does not take your focus away from the software it runs.