On Tuesday at SpringOne Europe 2009, SpringSource announced the General Availability of SpringSource tc Server 6.0. SpringSource tc Server is a drop-in replacement for Apache Tomcat 6 that also provides operations management and monitoring of servers and applications for a single instance or across many nodes, from a browser based console or from the command line. More details can be found at

• The tc Server product home page
• The blog post by SpringSource Principal Software EngineerJim Jagielski

Be sure to download tc Server and check it out.

I've been excited to see this release for a while now. Out of curiosity, and after 10 minutes of digging... does anybody know the license? And if it's not OSS, the cost? All I'm seeing is a 90 day personal use license. Which makes me hesitant to even download. I've been happy with spring, but I don't have a use for a paid servlet container. -me

Its a very good play from spring - so many people use tomcat and if the cost of support and all the bells n whistles come with it at a low cost , i may just get it for peace of mind. Here is an idea to go with this - Add "cloud computing" to your offering and host all the tomcat instances for your clients. Whats the cost structure ? do i need to call the sames guy and do the negotiations ? thats time consuming. How about - i have a small company and dont want to spend time haggling .. just tell me the price :).

I have use Tomcat for most of my Spring application. One issue I had with Tomcat was that it was unable to share a single Spring context for two Web Applications (running under the same Tomcat). Is it possible with the "tc Server"? If not, will it be possible soon?

Kind of a shame that a company like SpringSource would play hide the price list. General rule of thumb, if they are too embarrassed to tell you how much it costs on their website in an obvious spot, it's probably not worth it. --Tim

Tim Pricing is extremely competitive. We take your point about publishing pricing: Pricing information will very soon be available online and you will soon even be able to buy online. Rgds Rod

With what? If this is a drop-in replacement for Tomcat, it would be very hard to be competitive with its price (free) or its license (very open). I gather than tcServer is neither one of these things.

tc Server contains not only a fully supported version of Tomcat, but substantial additional code providing a sophisticated management experience and other benefits. It's a "drop-in replacement" for Tomcat from a programming model and deployment perspective, but offers numerous features that Tomcat does not. Users with very small-scale deployments probably don't care about those extra features and are perfectly happy on Tomcat from the ASF. If you need them are are intent on not paying any third party software vendors, you could try to build or supply them in house--but then you would find that the price looks extremely compelling. Rgds Rod

tc Server contains not only a fully supported version of Tomcat, but substantial additional code providing a sophisticated management experience and other benefits. It's a "drop-in replacement" for Tomcat from a programming model and deployment perspective, but offers numerous features that Tomcat does not.

Users with very small-scale deployments probably don't care about those extra features and are perfectly happy on Tomcat from the ASF. If you need them are are intent on not paying any third party software vendors, you could try to build or supply them in house--but then you would find that the price looks extremely compelling.

Rgds
Rod

i know that will be theplay - make the price compelling :) And to be frank - i like it. This will also make tomcat even more popular in small scale businesses. And in big organizations where support from a well established company is a big consideration, it will sell there as well. I always liek to thank apache guys for the stuff they have produced in last few years ! And spring guys are right next to them! thanks

Tim It's now possible to buy online. Rgds Rod

Tim

It's now possible to buy online.

Rgds
Rod

I just now clicked on your link to "buy online" and received the following message from SpringSource: "We're sorry but the tc Server Jumpstart package is no longer available. Please contact your local sales representative to learn about current discount packages." Please, just tell us how much the darn thing costs!

SpringSource tc Server Offerings and Availability

SpringSource tc Server 2.0 will be generally available in early April 2010 and offered at list price in the following three packages:

 

• Spring Edition - Starts at $750 per CPU
• Standard Edition - Starts at $500 per CPU
• Developer Edition - Free to download standalone or as part of SpringSource Tool Suite