The brainchild of the original Apache Jakarta Project, Apache Tomcat is a fully fledged and highly respected application server that caters perfectly to Java coded web pages. It is considered to be a powerhouse in the world of Java, and is definitely leading the pack when it comes to ranking servlet containers.
If you wanted to be picky you could argue that Tomcat isn’t a real web server, and that’s true. The term web (or servlet) container is more accurate, but labels aren’t important as it does exactly what you need regardless.
If your website has any Java applications then you need to have some way of running them, and there are a dozen reasons why that should be Apache Tomcat. Here are some more details on just a few of the advantages that make Tomcat the first and best choice.
It’s free
In fact, the free bit is only one half of the story as Tomcat is also open source – which means anyone who wants to can download the server source code. Plus there is an automatic community of experts that come along with it, so you will never be stuck for a helping hand if you need it.
It is known for being very lightweight
This translates to better results when it comes to speed, which is always an attractive outcome. Tomcat achieves this because it only does exactly what is necessary to get the job done with the server, so loading and redeployment times are the most competitive around. Tomcat doesn’t claim to offer a huge range of features, it is what it is, and it does what it does very efficiently.
Tomcat is super flexible
The combination of open software that is able to be customized to suit your exact needs, and the lightweight design makes Tomcat extremely flexible. There are not many similar options if you want software you can run in several ways without losing anything on the quality.
You get an additional layer of security
Any web developer who wants to put an extra level of security into place with minimal effort can easily install Tomcat to be accessed only via an Apache installation, which hides Tomcat behind a dedicated firewall. That’s a plus as you can never have enough security around a server.
Tomcat increases the stability of your server
Unstable servers are a liability, but Tomcat users don’t have to worry about this too much. For a start the platform is very stable, making it easy to build on it without too much of a concern. This is possible because Tomcat doesn’t rely on the Apache installation to function, so in the rare event that Tomcat failed it wouldn’t affect the server or stop it working as usual.
There are, as you’d imagine, many more things to know about Tomcat-based Java hosting, but here we have covered the key main points. There’s plenty of material around online for further learning if that appeals – for example, click here to check out JavaPipe’s Tomcat plans.