JavaOne: RedHat makes the case for JBoss middleware

Red Hat has shaken off any notion that the JBoss middleware platform will wither in the face of competition from IBM and Oracle.

JBoss middleware director Jason Anderson disputed the notion that the open source platform is unable to match its rivals in terms of scalability and reliability.

"People have painted open source with this broad brush but, when you look at the studies, people talk to us because of the licensing but they stay with us because of the support," he told V3.

"Ultimately, with our open source DNA the whole thing about scalability and reliability is untrue."

Red Hat unveiled JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6 earlier this year, touting it as a key component for platform-as-a-service as well as local and private cloud offerings.

Anderson explained that the platform is also designed to help companies manage the platforms and systems they want to keep on-premise or as private cloud services.

"Not everybody is going to move everything out to a public cloud. We have to be flexible enough to meet the needs of cloud and continue with what we do on-premise," he said.

As the platform progresses, Anderson believes that Red Hat will have some key advantages over its competitors, citing the company's open source history and strong developer support as driving corporate interest.

The JBoss open structure and developer community are popular with large firms that have little worries with budget for middleware platforms, according to Anderson.

"Red Hat bought JBoss because it had a good middleware community. They provide better feedback and ultimately we focus more on their needs. Our history has always been around that," he said.