Why Allaire will win
messages.yahoo.com
There is a lot of crowing about Allaire but not much substance being offered on this board. So, listed up.
My job is e-commerce. And I work for a venture capital firm. All day long I sit in front of the computer and do homework. I have made comparisons between competing CFMLs, ASPs, JSPs, Perls, CGIs and other web dev/e-commerce dev tools. I always came out inclined toward Allaire Platform. Why? Here's why.
1. Ease of development / time to market. Put ASP and CFML developer next to each other, give them a prototype to develop (so that you can sell the concept to a VC) and say "go!". How is going to come out first? CFML developer will. Because ColdFusion was built to be a Rapid Application Development environment. Whoever says that Cold Fusion is just another glorified HTML editor, is simply uneducated on the matter. Cold Fusion is an application server that is EXTENSIBLE via JAVA and C++. Then. Tell the two developers to fix the code or, rather, add an application security level. Again, CFML developer will be done a lot quicker. Why?
2. Remeber, Allaire pioneered 'server pages' in 1995-1996. The whole idea of a 3-tier architecture (browser/logic/data source) was at first packaged as an early Cold Fusion server. Yes, it extracted the best of CGI's and Perl's of the world at that time. And yes, that was a good thing because it allowed developers to focus on the implementation of the concept, dealing with complex metaphors (new to web users of the time), building complex client-server architechtures. Futher.
3. There is a lot of chanting about standards. Iternet created an unprecedented number of DE-FACTO standards. IP4 as we know it now was adopted before it became a standards. HTML, XML and others. Allaire had XML built into their platform far before XML was ever proposed. In fact, CFML is based on XML. So? What does that mean? What that means is that the extensibility of the language is made practically trivial. Writing powerful components <custom tags> is fast, easy and practical. Finally, this capability encourages community involvement.
4. Community is phemonenal. Developers who work with Allaire platform, like it. It's simply enjoyable to work with. It does not require dead baggage like VB's of the world to get the site to work. Allaire facilitates tag exchange gallaries, gives out free lessons. User groups are started all over the world. There is a loyal following.
5. What about technology? Is it any good? Well, you tell me. It works on NT and Linux. It's highly scalable. It adresses the needs of redundancy (clustering, native Cisco protocols, etc). It addresses the needs of group development (remote development, sand boxes, etc), the needs of client-server app development (db access, logic access, app framework, etc). Has a solid security framework.
Unix version is expected to increase performance by over 1000% percent after Geodesics do their kung-fu on the server. Now.
5. JAVA. Java is and always had been a part of Cold Fusion. The argumant is that Java is fast ans stable. It is a fallacy to think of Java as on operation system. After all, Java runs on a virtual machine that is in itself much like an applicaiton server. It only will be as stable as the operating systems it runs on. The big buzz is really about Java Server Pages (JSP). Allaire owns the Jrun line for that.
6. Now, let's just assume for a second that, after all, the folks at Allaire are not that dumb. What they have on hand right now is the application server that is by far the easiest to use and have a solid following. They also have a J2EE platform (and JSP) that is just CATCHIG UP out on the street. How about combining the two into one engine and let the folks loose on the JSP gig along with the IDE they already know? This ain't a fantasy. This new product is coming and it will be the best of the two worlds. Watch the Allaire Dev conference in the Fall. Put your ear to the ground.
7. Why hold on to Allaire? Because Allaire is a leader and runs ahead of the crowd. Allaire give the world a 'web developer'. Allaire allowed to part from the dead baggage like VB (and it freak spawnling ASP). And now, Allaire gears up for the next big hit. It takes resources and research. But I trust that I will not be disappointed. After all, Allaire is a real company with real engineers, with real distribution network, with real following and finally, with real code that runs on the web. To assume that a stock dip can profoundly affect the REAL PRODUCT LINE is simply naive.
Remeber, stock price is a largely a reflection of public opinion of the company, expressed in dollars and cents. The actual product has little to do with it.
8. Why buy it? Do you beleive that e-commerce software is in fact a sector of its own? Who are the playes in the sector? How much do their products cost? How long does it take to market with their software? WHO is their market? If you take the time to consider what I had to say, you will understand my position.
And my position is called "investor". I can not see the future. But I know the facts and will extrapolate further steps on my knowledge.
Buy it. |
