Comment from a power user to a question on Borlands newsgroups

"Thought i would jump in and add an 'real world' users point of view"

Q1:  Has anybody got experience in developing real-world applications in both platforms?  IF so, if you were starting again, would you make the same platform choice?

A: I would have to say i tried RO after starting with kbm then dropped it so i may be a little bias due to experience. kbm is where i will keep  my efforts solely due to the success i have had with the product in extreme usage.  One of my apps handles over a terabyte of information daily using the kbm product and the server app of the system gracefully handles the load.

"Briefly the mentioned system.."

"Backend Databases"
 8 backend data stores with a mix of DB types (2 Oracle 8i - 6 MS SQL)
    The 8i systems are on compaq mini's and the ms ones on w2k servers.
    these data stores house approx. 200 tables and one table is approx 22gig in size

"Middle Layer"
 2 copies of my srv app run on 2 ea NT servers - one as a primary and the other is for load balancing and fault tolorance (and remains idle 90% of the time, but got to have it).

The same server app works as a http server to handle in-house and proxy connections thus using the connection pool of kbm server for the http part of the app stays efficient and works flawlessly using the same backend database connections that serve the middle layer. The "same server" also houses 8 custom services using the kbm platform that handle about 40 custom procedures that i use for many functions that are outside of the simple task of retrieving info from a database. one additional function i added to the server app was a connection to our server (on the other side of the US) for (over) redundancy.  The system also handles 1,000 to 20,000 documents (mostly pdf) during the course of one day.

"Client Apps"
  This system uses 6 different client applications connecting to the kbm based server that handles the needs of different departments in the facilities that use it.
 
- an ISAPI dll serving as a client to the kbm system for producing web site info on the customers web server outside the firewall.
- activex controls located on other servers, again as a client to the kbm server primarily for data input from a web page using kbm's secure stream.
- Client app (Delphi) is used by the limited public for certain functions that interact with the system remotely and is in use by several thousand clients Uses other client app (Delphi) provided to inhouse users obviously handles the and general use of the data. This app is used by several hundred in-house employees.

The client applications also run very efficiently in Citrix (they have about 50 terminals);

I could go on and on about this system but I think the information thus far may give you an idea of what kbm will handle.  Modest amount of data but the only extreme
i have to reference.

- I also use kbm in 12 other commercial products and do use every feature that kbm has available. I could detail them but they do a good job of that on their web site. You should know that developing your own custom services with kbm is very easy once you get going so really the sky’s the limit in many respects.

Q2:  Has anybody measured  like-for-like performance?  IF so, which platform offers the better performance, given the same environment?

A: One would have to know the environment to argue this. As i hopefully displayed above my performance requirements are very critical. Don't trust any benchmark you see - do your own - performance will surprise you between the two depending on how much information you want to handle and the type of info.

Q3:  I may need to talk to certain application servers (BEA, Weblogic, Websphere etc).  Any experience using either of these platforms to talk to these servers?  Are there any caveats I should be aware of?

A: I do this with Java and XML in kbm. I do have some of the beta versions of the kbm SOAP/DOM/SAX product and can only say they are easier than anything else i have ever used, I am not sure when they will be released but i will probally put them into action next week to help everyone in testing.

Q4:  Scaling/Load Balancing.  Again, this will be a very important topic. Has anybody got any experience with scaling applications using either platform across multiple servers (web, application and DB).

A: Scaling and Load balancing in kbm is about as easy as it gets. Once you build your server, these features are real close to simply droping a control on your form and setting a few parameters and your done. The product does give you many options that will help you design the LB schema to fit most any network environment.

Q5:  Did anybody come across any showstoppers with either product.  I know this is very generic, but basically I want to try and find out if there have been any 'sorry, you can not do that with the product' when it was expected that it should.

A: I know of none but also kbm has full source so you can always "start a new show" if you want. There has been a few times when i wanted kbm to do something that no one else does and have been able create these things without having to buy another control or another update. If you choose kbm you'll love the user
community, they really do pitch in and help make the product not only better but also do those wierd things we programmers dream up during the process.

Q6:  Development Platforms.  Remobjects seems to be moving towards C#.  KBM seems to be more native Delphi.   Any general thoughts on the stated directions, in particular feedback on delivering on roadmap undertakings etc.

A: My comments "Go Delphi"    If I made my comments on C# it would start about 100 new threads on the subject.

Q7:  Deployment Platforms.   Somewhat related to previous questions, but ideally Win and Linux deployment for server applications would be nice.  RO seems to have stronger cross-platform support.  KBM seems to be more Win based, but it is not too clear from their website...

A: I use kbm on both w32 and Linux, works great, also using it on palm OS and use it with both D7 and C++

Q8:  Support.   Given the activity on the respective newsgroups, this seems to be a given in both cases, but again, any general feedback would be helpful.

A: Well on this subject I am spoiled by the support i get from the many avid users of kbm, there are many "guru" types that are always willing to help with a solution and these guys seriously know every line of code in the product. (scary at times).  Also there are several power users that bring new innovations to the table.

Q9:  Finally - pricing.   There seems to be a substantial difference in pricing between the two platforms.  I can see that there are different elements in RO, and that not all may be required for my use.  However, given the following oth environments have, there must be valid reasons for this difference, and I woul dlike to understand these reasons a bit more.

A: my opinion the value of the kbm product far exceeds the price so can't help ya here. Myself and my staff i think would all agree the product has saved us many, many, many thousands in development cost so if kbm went up on the price i would simply i send, with no question about.

Q10: I accept that some of these questions have subjective answers.  However, they are both complex products, and they both seem to have almost religious-like followings.  Sorry for the long mail, but I am trying to make an informed decision based on actual, real-world, loaded applications.

A: Very smart!