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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.