IBM WebSphere licensees can use the Azure hosting to support microservices or standards-based application development. The collaboration enables "easy migration," Microsoft asserted.

IBM's WebSphere Studio Application Developer 4.0 IDE can help small and midsize teams speed J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition) application development, but only if they work on Windows.

When it comes to Java application server comparisons, there isn’t a starker contrast between two offerings than Apache Tomcat and IBM WebSphere. Right off the bat, let’s clear up some disambiguation.

WebSphere Studio Application Developer 5.0, available now, is priced at ,499 per user. WebSphere Studio Enterprise Developer 5.0, scheduled for release September 30, will retail for ,500 per user.