Developers rank best application servers

The "user's choice" for application servers, according to more than 700 software developers, include two of the oldest-one might say mature -- and one relative newcomer. Developers ranked Adobe ColdFusion, the open-source Apache Geronimo, and Oracle WebLogic Server, among their favorite options, according to a free report distributed by Evans Data (free registration required).

Enterprise software developers are, perhaps, all too familiar with application servers: server-based software that can be called by client applications. Web servers are a subset which exclusively handle HTTP requests; in contrast, application servers can use any number of protocols to serve business logic to programs.

Evans Data interviewed more than 700 developers, asking them to rate 21 characteristics of application servers that they had personally used. Among the features and capabilities rated were performance, security features, database connectivity, scalability, support, diagnostics, event logs, and value to cost ratio.

In this survey, IBM WebSphere, Red Hat JBoss and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 also earned high marks from their users. SAP NetWeaver and Sun Java System Application Server/GlassFish were also evaluated for their niche uses.

The top-ranked Adobe ColdFusion has a long history. Originally introduced by Allaire, it was acquired by Macromedia, then became part of Adobe in yet another acquisition. ColdFusion version 8.0 was released in July 2007, featuring Microsoft .NET integration, integration with Adobe Acrobat forms, and enhanced performance. ColdFusion scored best with developers for its scalability, support and security.

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