Why WebSphere? Blog

Part of the reason for industry standards to exist is to avoid vendor lock-in. Such was the premise of J2EE – mostly fulfilled. But what about migrating BPM, ESB, DBMS from one vendor to another? Are there automated tools to do this? Technical migration is only part of the issue and often not the hardest one to overcome. Skills, culture, experience, risk, even politics play significant role. Did I mention financial side? Luckily this last one is often easy to solve as IBM has very competitive pricing compared to Oracle. On the other hand if you are an Open Source user and like to get your software free of charge with optional paid support, you still may consider IBM software. In the context of a bigger picture, the cost of license and support over the life time of the project is not as significant as one might think. So why not pick up the best tools you can find? I know how I do my shopping for tools. I have completed a number of home renovation projects and when I go to Lowes or Home Depot, I know the difference between the low-end and professional tools. I have never done a home renovation project for a fee, but still I am willing to pay the premium for professional tools since I am using them a lot – not just once a year. To me the ROI of those investments is big and easily noticeable (especially when I am in the middle of the project and the “cheap” tool breaks).

Read full article here: How hard it really is to migrate JEE, DBMS, BPM and ESB applications between vendor runtimes?.