What is the main benefit of using an application server? [closed]

Question

What are the main advantages (and disadvantages) of using of an Application Server, comparing to a standalone application? I'm interested in Java approach mainly.

Answer 1

With an application server, the developer should spend time writing business logic (which delivers added-value) rather than boilerplate infrastructure code (e.g. managing transactions, configuration, security, etc.). So to me, the main argument is that using an application server should boost the productivity.

Unfortunately, the learning curve until you can unleash this productivity boost is rather long. In the worse case, misusage of application server features can even result in a productivity loss.

Also a general problem with any approach that raise the abstraction level (same with MDA, etc.), is that when something goes wrong it's harder to understand how to fix or circumvent the problem. On the other hand, if you do everything yourself at a lower abstraction level, you know how to fix problem easily but you re-invent the wheel again and again.

This is a high-level view of the concept of application server. For details about technical features of Java EE application servers, refer to the Java EE documentation or the link in the 1st comment to your question.