VMware’s SpringSource division announced the release of its Spring 3.1 release train amid increasing adoption of the Spring Framework among enterprise Java developers.
VMware
announced that it has delivered all the key components of the Spring 3.1
release train.
VMware, a
leading provider of virtualization and cloud infrastructure, announced March
14 that all the major extensions to the Spring Framework are now compatible
with Spring 3.1, the latest version of the popular open-source Java development
framework. VMwares SpringSource unit made Spring 3.1 generally
available as of December 2011. However, Spring Integration,
Spring Security, Spring Batch, Spring Data, Spring Mobile and Spring for
Android all now support Spring 3.1, making it easier and faster for enterprise
developers to build the next generation of enterprise applications, Adrian
Colyer, CTO of Cloud and Application Services at VMware, said in an interview
with eWEEK.
Driving
application development for todays enterprises with powerful simplifying
technology, Spring is the premier choice for developers looking for an
extensible, portable and open-source framework, Colyer said in a statement.
The latest release of the Spring Framework and its major extensions continue
the tradition of taking care of the infrastructure so developers can focus on
building applications that address todays business requirements.
Colyer said
the Spring Framework makes it easy for enterprise developers to integrate
security models, databases, Web services and messaging systems into
applications that can be deployed and thrive within any Java environment.
Spring makes it simple to access enterprise information stored in traditional
databases as well as new NoSQL data platforms and big data distributed processing
solutions like Apache Hadoop. With the addition of new REST enhancements, Java
developers can use Spring to build the critical services to mobilize enterprise
applications, VMware said.
Were fully
up to speed with Spring 3.1 across the board, Colyer told eWEEK. Were pushing further and further into the enterprise. We
want to keep the core Spring Framework working and branch into new areas. For
instance, there is a collection of Spring Data projects, with support for all
types of unstructured data types, Colyer said, noting that Hadoop is but one
of these.
VMware reports
that average monthly Spring downloads via Maven Central have grown 40 percent
year-to-date and all community participation metrics for Spring are at the
highest levels ever recorded.
Moreover,
Evans Data's "Spring Usage Study" from September 2011 bears out the
ubiquity of the Spring Framework, including that it is the framework of choice
among expert Java developers. Indeed, two-thirds of all enterprise Java
developers use spring, Colyer said.
And the Evans
Data study showed that Spring developers report productivity and speed of
deployment as the top two reasons they use Spring. A full 70 percent of Spring
users reported at least a 50 percent productivity gain by using Spring and 73
percent reported that Spring allows them to deliver projects twice as fast
Also, more
than two-thirds of Java developers are either using Spring today or plan to do
so within the next two years, the study showed. More than half of Spring users
expect to grow or significantly grow their use of Spring
Additionally,
Spring users are more cloud-ready, according to the Evans Data study. The Evans
Data results show heavy Spring adopters are more likely to have already
deployed applications to the cloud. And more than half all Spring developers
report that they plan to move Java applications to a lightweight server, such
as Apache Tomcat, within one year, the study showed.
Meanwhile,
Colyer said SpringSource continues to support the integration of development
and operations functions in its offering. Although there is no particular "DevOps"
project brewing under the Spring umbrella, SpringSource continues to provide
underlying support for it in its tooling initiatives, Colyer said.
Spring
community members are invited to attend the SpringOne On the Road event in Europe in April
and May to learn about the newest innovations for the framework. These special
developer-focused one-day events will be co-hosted with the Cloud Foundry
Open Tour.
The Spring
family of open-source projects can be found on the Spring community Website at www.springsource.org.
Spring projects are available under the Apache 2.0 open-source, free software
license.
Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.
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