When writing new software, it is natural to simply follow the beaten paths. People pick up what they are already used to, or what they are told to use, and then get going. There may or may not be proper directions for choosing the technology, but there is invariably a safe bet option that will be chosen. This isn’t wrong per se. What is though, is when no alternatives were ever considered when there was a chance to do so. AppServers are not necessary for deploying scalable Java solutions. JDBC and ORMs are not necessary for building high performance and reliable Java programs. The fact that a lot of people keep doing this, is no good justification for adopting the practice.