[Zope] Request for comparison...

Joachim Werner joe@iuveno-net.de
Tue, 29 Jan 2002 13:22:18 +0100


Hi!

> > Can I ask for a comparison between Zope and Oracle Internet File System,
> > if they are in competition and, if so, what are the strenghts of Zope
and why
> > I could prefer Zope?

> Isn't this a bit like comparing apples and toiletpaper? :-)
> Oracle IFS is a server that serves files through a large variety of
> protocols, like NFS, SMB, HTTP, FTP; IMAP and so on.
> Zope is an object oriented internet application server.

Well, IFS can be used for things Zope can be used for, so why not compare
them?

I have no hands-on experience with IFS, but know it quite well in theory
(reading relevant product reviews, white papers and the like). So I'll give
it a try:

If all you need is making your Oracle data available via one of the
protocols IFS supports, then IFS is your choice. AFAIK, you'll not have to
pay additional licensing fees if you already have an Oracle license.

If you want to build applications, the choice (excluding others like PHP)
is:

Oracle + IFS (if you need it) + an application server of your choice (e.g.
Oracle's, or BEA Weblogic, or IBM Websphere)

or

Zope + an RDBMS of your choice, if needed (Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, ...) +
additional servers of your choice, as needed (OpenLDAP, Cyrus IMAP,
whatever)

You see, it is getting complicated. Sometimes it might even be the most
efficient to use Oracle + IFS + Zope, just because developing your
application will be much faster in Zope than in any Java application server.

Somtimes however, you'll not have the budget for Oracle, so you'll go with
PostgreSQL/MySQL + Zope.

While Zope can't do this out-of-the-box, it would be perfectly possible to
use it to access PostgreSQL tables via WebDAV, IMAP, whatever, and in effect
get the same features the IFS gives you for Oracle.

What I currently wouldn't consider a sane choice is using Zope primarily as
a file server (or "virtual file server", if we are talking about serving
from an RDBMS). It's just not made for it, and Zope's performance is likely
to be much worse than using specialised products.

On the other hand, Oracle IFS is really eating memory and resources. AFAIK
you should always run it on well-equipped dedicated servers. Zope running on
such a server might be rather fast, too.

To come back to your question: You'll have to start with examining the
problem you are going to solve:

If you can start from scratch, using open-source-only technology (I'd call
my favourite one "ZAPP" - Zope, Apache, Python, PostgreSQL, like "LAMP"
stands for the popular Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl) might be the best
choice. Why? Because it is open, cheap, and stands for real rapid
development (which is my no. 1 reason for using Zope).

If you already have Oracle in your business and IFS can solve the problem
without having to write applications against it, it will be the best choice.
Compare it to Samba: You'd never start writing SMB support for Zope and
exporting your files via LocalFS + Zope + SMBForZope if you can do the same
with Samba.

Joachim