IBM Cloud Pak for Applications vs. Oracle Java SE Subscription

IBM Cloud Pak for Applications is clearly suitable for modernizing the WebSphere runtime from the heavy, complex and expensive WAS-ND, and to a lesser extent WAS-base, to the super simple, fast and lightweight WebSphere Liberty runtime. I guarantee, once you start using Liberty you'll never look back. Enough cannot be said about how awesome Transformation Advisor is. The output analysis it produces, along with the migration plan and associated artifacts, considerably simplifies both the decision-making process surrounding modernization and subsequent implementation. Without TA we would've made bad decisions by blindly picking unsuitable apps for moving from WAS to Liberty. Using the results from TA we've excluded multiple WAS apps from our immediate plans to migrate to Liberty, saving time and effort that probably would have resulted in a failed migration. We recently used Transformation Advisor to help us successfully migrate an app from Tomcat to WebSphere Liberty. We needed to make some changes to the Tomcat app, but TA helped highlight these required changes. Without TA I'm not sure we would have succeeded.

Incentivized

[Oracle Java SE Subscription] has been highly beneficial as no additional trained resources needed to be allocated for managing and handling the Java SE applications. Also it has minimal operational cost. The support team of Java SE Subscriptions are always available 24*7, the applications are always up-to-date due to frequent update and patches

Incentivized

• WebSphere Liberty for lighter footprint
• Transformation Advisor
• Mono2Micro
• Customer can benefit from their investment by optimizing license offerings in IBM Cloud Pak for Applications

Incentivized

• Collect in an inventory all versions of Java that have been used in different applications.
• Determine the status of old versions of Java and update or apply essential security patches.
• Oracle Support is the best to be able to solve problems in an agile and safe way.
• Fast update cycles to make new features available.

Incentivized

• While the licensing is considerably simplified than it used to be, I still find it somewhat confusing. For example, WebSphere Liberty Core has an 8:1 VPC ratio. This is clear when dealing with VMs but it is still not clear to me as to whether we get an 8:1 ratio when running on OpenShift or whether we need to purchase additional OpenShift licenses to support running WebSphere Liberty Core in OpenShift.
• Not so much related to IBM Cloud Pak for Applications, but while Transformation Advisor is an indispensable tool to help modernize to the WebSphere Liberty runtime, I wish we could run it against WebSphere Liberty itself. The reason being, we are now using TA as a single repository for our configurations. TA also highlights many potential issues when migrating to Liberty; these issues may also be applicable for apps already running in Liberty, we just don't know it yet.

Incentivized

• AMC Usage details hard to Decipher and Categorize
• AMC JRE Upgrades have very limited Scheduling of Deployments, should be more like SCCM. Where you know exactly when deployments are going out. Not just when the Agent decides to check in.
• Cost is WAY too high

Incentivized

It provides an affordable way to protect your investment.

Incentivized

As I mentioned before, quality of support from Oracle Java SE Subscription is extraordinary. The speed of resolution and the expertise of the staff is really appreciated. We raised a high priority support incident which blocked our process [and] Oracle Java SE support did a quick analysis and provided a solution which took less time than we expected. They also help us in installing patches and updates whenever required.

Incentivized

Our customer mission-critical core banking applications like Temenos T24 run on best of the breed IBM WebSphere Application Server which is java based-application server. IBM has kept up the promise of providing support, fixpack, and any update. As far as I know, at least by 2030, IBM is committed to continue with WHE which gives customers confidence in their current investments.

Incentivized

As Java has been developed by Oracle, you can rely on them being the best providers for support and implementation of Java across a large variety of systems. The support staff around the SE subscription have been exceptionally helpful throughout the entire process from purchasing to post-installation support. The subscription itself gives you a strong development platform along with access to a variety of useful tools all of which are on par with other industry-standard systems. The simple UI and strong inter-connectivity with other Oracle systems far exceed what other providers are trying to provide.

Incentivized

• Increased Development Efficiency
• Cost Reduction in Infrastructure Management
• Enhanced Application Performance and Reliability

Incentivized

• Code portability allowed us to run the same code on all platforms
• Security is always a key issue especially in the world of increasing cybersecurity laws. It only makes sense to invest in a secure development environment
• Developers appreciate rich community support for java se platform

Incentivized