Which application server has the fewest critical bugs? Is easiest to configure? Has the best quality overall? These questions play a key role in application development professionals' evaluations of their options for existing and future applications. Experience with early app servers has created a canon of popular wisdom about the quality of app server products, but five long-held assumptions within this canon are out of date.

Overall, the January 2008 Global Forrester Research/BZ Media Application Platform Quality Online Survey revealed that the quality differences among major platforms, including Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and two open source options, are narrower than many application development professionals assume. The result: Application development professionals have better platform options to choose from than they might think.

This Forrester Research report covers the following topics:

• Factors you should consider as application platforms evolve
  
• Findings from the January 2008 Global Forrester Research/BZ Media Application Platform Quality Online Survey
  
• Five myths about the platform application market
  
• Four criteria that application development professionals should examine when selecting application server products
  
• And next generation application server challenges