EPS Custom Software Group evaluates Microsoft® .NET
application development and deployment compared to the Oracle® and Java
alternative.
EPS Custom Software Group, in its continuing effort to seek out
the best development tools available, was interested in a recent Oracle whit
paper that criticized the Microsoft® .NET strategy. This criticism was
sufficient for Microsoft to publish a rebuttal to Oracle's claims. Examining
both papers made for interesting reading. EPS decided to compare the claims and
counterclaims. The company came to the conclusion that the decision to work
with Microsoft® and the Visual Studio .NET developer suite and platform
continues to be the optimum solution for both EPS and its clients.
The costs associated with each of the options and our
experience working with various platforms tells us that the Microsoft .NET
development and deployment suite is the superior option for our clients. Oracle
says that at the high end, their servers perform better than anything Microsoft
has to offer. It is difficult to evaluate this claim because, while Oracle
makes this assertion, they do not allow any published benchmark evaluations on
their product. In reality, ultimate levels of performance are only important in
relatively few applications. Our experience has been that virtually all
application scenarios can be handled by either database server product when
loaded on the appropriate computer(s). Performance, in almost all cases, is
really a non-issue. More important to the client, most software does not need
to be deployed on machines where licensing fees can run into the millions of
dollars. Our experience says that Microsoft SQL Server 2000, deployed on a good
dual or quad processor computer with fault tolerant roll-over and backup will
perform beyond the needs of all but the most demanding applications. SQL
Server's installation, license and maintenance costs are considerably less than
those charged by Oracle.
Another reason for continuing to stay with the Microsoft .NET
platform is our experience with Java programming. While Java is touted as being
truly cross-platform, our experience says otherwise. There are serious
compatibility issues with how Java programs run on different virtual machines.
This has been acknowledged by Java development proponents themselves. When you
think about it, ultimate compatibility is really a non-issue. A company's
applications are almost always deployed on a defined set of computers so the
ability to run a CRM program on Linux is not an issue in most cases. The
well-publicized execution speed issue continues to plague Java. Several
applications development houses have encountered critical performance issues
when trying to scale up Java applications from demonstration to production. A
firm EPS works with has had to go back to the drawing board on a key client
project because of Java speed issues. We continue to look at the issue but
continue to decide against Java development as being a second best solution for
our clients.
While there is some validity to the statement that .NET is a
Microsoft standard instead of an "industry" standard, EPS does not feel that
this is anything more than a "red herring. The interface between program
modules continues to be standard XML wrapped in standard SOAP messages. As long
as modules are written to publish and consume this open form of communications,
it really makes little difference what the module itself is written in. More
important is whether the module does what it is supposed to do and does it
well. We have not uncovered any insurmountable problems in our development work
and neither have our clients.
The key point is that, working with the Microsoft® .NET
development and deployment suites, EPS gets its applications deployed quicker,
and for less of our clients' money than other alternatives we have evaluated.
Working in a well-integrated environment, many of the routines are pre-built
for proper development. They are enhanced by a common language runtime that
makes debugging applications easier. Finally, the EPS decision rests with the
fact that we can do a development project better, faster and less expensively
by sticking with our .NET focus versus wandering into other vendors' quagmires.
