So, I got in a discussion (read: argument) with someone about scalability, right. It all started when a manager made a comment, “.NET isn't as scalable as J2EE.” I of course rebutted by claiming that this was an ignorant statement. Then, a more technical person on this guy's team made the comment, as if it would be any less ignorant. To prove my point, I asked the techie how comparable .NET and J2EE apps would scale considering a Windows-based platform. He proceeded to say that they would each present similar capabilities. So, I asked how a claim that one is more scalable than the other can be made if they can scale the same. He explained that, due to the faults in the Windows-based platforms (and that .NET is currently Windows-only), .NET cannot take advantage of moving to “more scalable” platforms. My point was then that, it is not .NET that is not as scalable as J2EE as the comment suggested, but the Windows platform that is not as scalable as other platforms. If the comment would have been worded this way, I wouldn't have argued. I'm not a system administrator and I don't keep up with all the latest and greatest OS's on the market. Of course, my initial thoughts are that any environment can scale as long as it can support distributed computing, pooling, and the myriad of other enterprise applicaiton development concepts. So, if we bulk up the current Windows server or buy a couple more, then that would be comparable to deploying on supposedly more scalable platforms.
I am not a performance/scalability expert. I have never claimed to be one. Maybe I'm off on this, but all logical thinking seems to point to my conclusion. I understand what the guy was saying about using other systems, and people accept that as a risk when they choose .NET. That doesn't mean that the app can't scale, though.
Perhaps I should point out all of the remarks about how J2EE isn't reliable. What good is scalability if you only have an 80% availability?
If anyone has any info to feed the fire, I would appreciate it. I was thrown off by these remarks and would like to be a little better prepared next time. Any thoughts on the topic are appreciated, too.