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What are the reasons for using proprietary application servers like WebSphere or WebLogic, when there a good open source equivalents. In what cases is the functionality of open source application servers like Tomcat or Glassfish not enough?

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I've voted to move this to serverfault.com as this is a question about server technology not programming. – Simon P Stevens Nov 25 '09 at 11:13
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Mar 13 '10 at 10:09

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I wouldn't call them proprietary, they're just commercial. And some companies have to rely on maintenance, support and the guarantee, that the product is usable for a certain time.

From a functionality aspect - there you have to go in the details. Every implementation of an application server has its advantages/disadvantages or extra features. You really have to compare or - the easier way - check your requirements and take the one that offers the required functionality for the best price.

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I think it a misconception that open source tools/servers/whatever are cost free.

You have to pay someone to set it all up, maintain it, trawl the internet when something unexpected happens.

Typically when you buy in to a commercial product, you get a support contract too - which pretty much puts you in direct contact with the people that wrote the software, and in some cases allows you to call them out to help with your installation/issue, etc.

It depends how the maths work out - sometimes the 'free' option can be the more expensive one.

From a purely functional standpoint however, you'd need to do a full evaluation of each piece of software based on the requirements and budget that you have.

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@Lee - valid points, but you fail to mention that many open source products also have paid-for support contracts if you want them. But unlike most proprietary software, you (the customer) can choose to not pay for support if you don't want/need it. – Stephen C Nov 25 '09 at 13:25
You're right! Thanks for adding it as a comment, it makes the whole thing more balanced :] – Lee Nov 25 '09 at 14:06
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