I agree with most of your points. I don't have enough experience with large management structures to say anything concrete about it, but it does sound plausible that most decisions in those environments aren't primarily based on technical considerations.

One thing that puzzles me though, is that you say that J2EE is a lot slower, yet more scalable than the perl/apache/mysql solution. I don't understand that at all. Surely the slowness implies that you need more boxes to reach the same level of service?

I find making mod_perl apps scalable a breeze: the standard Apache reverse-proxy setup combined with a replicated/clustered mysql setup means that:

  1. I can have any number of frontend webservers
  2. Those reverse-proxy to any number of mod_perl application servers
  3. Those communicate with any number of database servers
That means there is no single point of failure, and increasing scalability simply means adding another box to one of the tiers. Since mod_perl apparently outperforms J2EE, that means you need less machines for the middle tier.

For me, that says a LAMP setup can be both cheaper to start with, quicker to develop, and easier to scale.

It's entirely possible to set up this 3-tier model on a single machine, and I generally do so for my clients if they anticipate growth. Moving it to a multi-machine setup is a piece of cake, and doesn't require specialised perl skills. In my opinion, this means a LAMP setup is both extremely effective for small or starting businesses, but equally (cost)effective for large businesses.

Unless I miss something blindingly obvious, the only thing in favor of J2EE would be cheaper developers; but you'd need more of them (which means you need more managers), and they have to work harder, with more complex tools, to reach the same level of service.

In reply to Re^2: Whither scripting? Will scripting wither? by rhesa
in thread Whither scripting? Will scripting wither? by samizdat

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.