(.Net + SQL Server +Azure ) vs (Java + Oracle +Google App Engine) which is better for this project specifically? (Plz answer/Vote)

Question

Hello Guys, I have to develop a ERP System for a 2,000+ end users Organisation. Could You please suggest me with comparable points that among (Java or .Net) in which technology I should invest money and time? Although I have done some average projects in both , but this project is going to be very big in near future in terms of Scalability.

I want to know your experiences and some Tips from you people, so that I can develop and deploy this project efficiently.

I rate .Net > Java for this project only due to less development time available. We have to use some Rapid App Development technology.

I have to deploy this on Cloud (Azure or Google App engine). It will be better if I got answers from those people who works in both(.Net and Java).

I will appreciate answers from your experiences. Thanks in Advance

Answer 1

I think both approaches can be used to deliver this successfully. I would expect you to have the same amount of success/pain with either choice. When it comes to making a decision you should base it on the amount of expertise that you have to hand. That is, your own and that of your existing colleagues and the resources that you can acquire (new recruits, contractors, consultants etc.).

That said a couple of technical notes:

• The Java approach tends to have more freedom, i.e. more frameworks and choice of technologies for various solutions (although GAE will bring in some restrictions).
• There is less choice in the .NET space, but that is not always a bad thing. E.g. you tend not end up in tireless debates about the logging frameworks.
• Java is starting to age as a language and C# is a bit nicer, however there a number of newer languages that run on the Java VM (Scala, Groovy, Ruby, Clojure).

Answer 2

I would suggest creating a very small proof-of-concept project in both technologies, which do something real - like allow people to log in, see messages, and allow them to type in new messages, and log out again.

Even if the project is laughably small, if you do it well, you will have a finished product on each platform which have shown you by experience how things works and if you like the way you had to do them. You will be able to see if you can debug in the cloud, if you can profile when load testing, if you can do fast work inhouse which then works well when deployed to the cloud.

And you will need to figure out things. Are the online resources good? How responsive is the StackOverflow community for each platform when you ask questions?

Personally, I consider the ".NET is Windows-only" to be important. Except for that I do not believe there is any technical showstopper for either platform.