GlassFish (GF) V2 is almost identical to the commercial version (Sun Java Server App Server, here called AS) and is aimed at more at enterprise-class app server implementations than V1 was. New features include improved/simplified admin, dropping the price, and a dual-license approach (CDDL and GPL v2), plus contributions from folks like Ascential (acquired by IBM), Oracle, and Ericsson. Key differences from the commercial product: a GUI installer (AS) vs JAR file (GF); and a high-availability database (legacy) for AS vs. in-memory replication for GF. For development, although they haven’t seen much movement away from Java, the GlassFish folks are supporting Ruby over Java (JRuby) in v2, and native Ruby will arrive in v3.
While performance, price, features, and ease of use are important to large enterprises, in a quasi-commodity market where most large enterprises have app servers already, these “differentiators” will not necessarily cause users to switch to GlassFish in any large numbers. However, in the less-developed SMB market, ease of use is a highly important criterion, because trained administrators for complex server software are thin on the ground. In fact, some past interviews I have had with SMBs indicate that app servers have had low penetration because they have required as much administration as enterprise databases. In other words, if Sun wants to try a “bottom-up” strategy that sells servers and app server software to medium-sized businesses (and their ISVs) seeking better Web presence, then capture a fair share of ongoing revenues as these MBs grow, GlassFish is the app server software to support such a strategy.
Read the complete post 'GlassFish: An SMB Play?':
http://www.illuminata.com/perspectives/?p=386
