Richard Monson-Hafael is doing a study for the Burton Group, to "understand how companies are using JBoss JEMS software components and how this usage varies across different types of organizations. The survey is only 10 easy questions and so should not take people more than a minute or two to fill out (depending on how much they know about their own usage of JBoss software). People can answer these questions from a project, business unit, or company-wide perspective, whatever they see." This study seems appropriate for the week of JBoss World, and Richard will tally the results and publish them here on TheServerSide.com on Friday, June 16 2006.

Who is paying for the study? I am asking this because M$ is known for using "independent" studies to generate mindshare where there isn't any. We don't want open-source projects to start doing the same. Guglielmo Enjoy the Fastest Known Reliable Multicast Protocol with Total Ordering .. or the World's First Pure-Java Terminal Driver

Who is paying for the study?

I am asking this because M$ is known for using "independent" studies to generate mindshare where there isn't any. We don't want open-source projects to start doing the same.

Guglielmo

Enjoy the Fastest Known Reliable Multicast Protocol with Total Ordering

.. or the World's First Pure-Java Terminal Driver

He say's as he plugs the "Fastest Known Reliable Multicast Protocol With Total Ordering".. Sorry, I couldn't resist ;)

He say's as he plugs the "Fastest Known Reliable Multicast Protocol With Total Ordering".. Sorry, I couldn't resist ;)

It's not my protocol :( I just implemented it. I don't claim that it's the fastest implementation. And the couple of people who evaluated it did so of their own volition. G

That's kind of moot given the fact that the survey seems pretty wide open. The real question becomes as to whether he releases the raw data. It suffers from the basic problems of all internet surveys. Minimally it's using a self-selected population (those who hear about the survey and choose to participate). I don't know enough about Survey Monkey (the site/tool he's using) to know whether it suffers from the basic problem of "vote early, vote often". But, all in all as far as who's funding it, it doesn't really matter if the raw result data is provided as well as the protocol for the study. With that information you can make your own conclusions from the data.

I think TSS should not advertise surveys that it does not endorse.

"...and publish the results here on TSS." We sorta do endorse the survey.

"...and publish the results here on TSS."

We sorta do endorse the survey.

That's fine. Where is this survey coming from? Who needs to know? It should be okay to ask.

Well, it's being done *for* the Burton Group; I think it's more for informational purposes than anything else, as JBoss is a 'majour player' and such studies are done to gather information about how prevalent such app servers are. As far as who needs to know: well, again, as a majour player, I think we can all do with a little more information about how JBoss does as a "real appserver" and not as a deployment platform for smaller needs.

Well, it's being done *for* the Burton Group; I think it's more for informational purposes than anything else, as JBoss is a 'majour player' and such studies are done to gather information about how prevalent such app servers are. As far as who needs to know: well, again, as a majour player, I think we can all do with a little more information about how JBoss does as a "real appserver" and not as a deployment platform for smaller needs.

JBoss a major player? Ha!

"...and publish the results here on TSS."

We sorta do endorse the survey.

You've come a long way since this: http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=26234 I guess things have changed now that JBoss is part of a public company? That's another clear benefit of the Red Hat acquisition.

Well, that was two years ago; JBoss has good and bad points to it as a company. This survey is meant more for information's sake, from TSS' point of view (well, my point of view) and not an endorsement of JBoss. At any rate, no matter what you think of JBoss as a product or company, they do have an effect on J2EE, and thus should be looked at, at the very least.

Hi, We are seeing a large increase in evaluation requests for our application performance and test management product, JXInsight, on the JBoss JEMS platform. Up to the begining of this year it was largely customers running the BEA WebLogic platform that were contacting us looking for a solution. Now the level of interest for each platform is on par. I will admit that this year we have being adding better and better integration with JBoss AS and JBoss AOP but this was driven by sales orders and feature requests. Regards, William Louth JXInsight Product Architect CTO, JInspired "JEE tuning, testing, tracing and monitoring with JXInsight" http://www.jinspired.com

Well, that was two years ago; JBoss has good and bad points to it as a company. This survey is meant more for information's sake, from TSS' point of view (well, my point of view) and not an endorsement of JBoss. At any rate, no matter what you think of JBoss as a product or company, they do have an effect on J2EE, and thus should be looked at, at the very least.

I agree with you regarding the JBoss affect on the market. You just need to look at the product sales revenue in BEA for the past 4 years to understand that. That's why the big J2EE vendors have moved on to other things (i.e. SOA). Also, I think it's 'big' of you to forgive and forget, and move on.

Burton Group partnered with TSS for this survey in order to gather real data on real users. The survey is somewhat self selecting, but that is why there are a few qualifying questions so that we can slice and dice the data to get more valuable results. On Friday, I plan to provide anyone and everyone full access to the raw data. The site used for the survey, SurveyMonkey.com, also allows people to easily filter the data without needing sophisticated tools - that capability will also be available to everyone. One more thing: Burton Groups customers are nearly all end-user companies; none of our published research is paid for by venders. We research and report on those topics that our clients are asking about, and a lot of people are asking about JBoss and whether its ready for production environments. That's why we are doing the survey, to help us answer that question. I hope that clarifies the purpose and motives for the survey. All the best, Richard Monson-Haefel Sr. Analyst, Burton Group

none of our published research is paid for by venders. We research and report on those topics that our clients are asking about, and a lot of people are asking about JBoss and whether its ready for production environments.

That's nice to hear, definitely. I took a look at the survey questions and it seems that there is nothing there that can help someone determine how ready jboss is. Only what other people's perception of it is. Instead, I would strongly urge Burton Group customers to google "jboss", "xa", "recovery log", etc. Guglielmo

I took a look at the survey questions and it seems that there is nothing there that can help someone determine how ready jboss is. Only what other people's perception of it is.

Instead, I would strongly urge Burton Group customers to google "jboss", "xa", "recovery log", etc.

I agree that people should do their own research, but the survey results will be useful in terms of finding correlations among different data points. For example, how are Fortune 500 companies using JBoss compared to small business.So anyway, the data will be as useful as you make it. In my case it helps answer some questions about how organizations are using the technology. You can read about JBoss' support for various technologies (e.g. XA, recovery logs, clustering, etc.) until you are blue in the face, but evidence of its usefulness can also be found by talking to people who are actually using it. This survey is one part of that type of investigation.

In my case it helps answer some questions about how organizations are using the technology. You can read about JBoss' support for various technologies (e.g. XA, recovery logs, clustering, etc.) until you are blue in the face, but evidence of its usefulness can also be found by talking to people who are actually using it.

If you are going to be advising your clients on mindshare, that works. On the other hand, with regard to XA, say, most people don't understand what it is, and so most people cannot decide for themselves whether they are looking at a good product or not. Guglielmo

In my case it helps answer some questions about how organizations are using the technology. You can read about JBoss' support for various technologies (e.g. XA, recovery logs, clustering, etc.) until you are blue in the face, but evidence of its usefulness can also be found by talking to people who are actually using it.

If you are going to be advising your clients on mindshare, that works.

On the other hand, with regard to XA, say, most people don't understand what it is, and so most people cannot decide for themselves whether they are looking at a good product or not.

Guglielmo

You are, of course, right that this survey doesn't tell people if (a) XA support exists and (b) a particular client needs it. However, that type of thing is actually covered in the report I'm writing. In this case the raw data from this one survey will be accessible to anyone who wants to use it. This survey is only one data point in a large body of research that will be presented to our clients in my report on JBoss. When we write a report we have to consider a large number of things - not only technical aspects of the platform.

Do you happen to know how many users are using Geronimo?