"Should CFML developers switch to Java?" asks Andrew Powell in an article this week at SYS-CON.com. "No," he answers. ColdFusion is the fastest way to get data to AJAX, Flex, Silverlight, and even JavaFX, according to Powell, who adds: "ColdFusion also provides complex services easier than Java, .NET, Ruby or whatever wishes they could." 

"Simply put," writes Powell, "ColdFusion is a J2EE app that enables you to be more productive than if you were writing pure Java or CFML code, alone.  Look at it, and embrace it as such, and a whole new world will open up to you, as a CFML or Java developer."

Powell's advice to his fellow developers is to let ColdFusion focus on three things: 

Getting data into and out of RIA front-ends
Rendering HTML with dynamic data
Providing services that Java and .NET cannot provide

"Beyond that," he advises, "let Java, .NET, or whatever do the work at the model layer."

Read Andrew Powell's two most recent opinion pieces in full here and here.