posted 12 years ago
Sure thing - just take a look at some web server documentation (like apache web server). Then you can proceed to clustering application and load balancing. I think then you will see why application server is separated from web server in production systems.
Using web server embedded in application server should not be used in production if you really are interested in high performance, scalable and flexible solution.
Edit: also think about serving static content like images, css, html, etc. Is it really needed to put those simple requests to fully fledged application server? Or maybe these could be served by web server which only forwards business logic requests to app serv?
Cheers!