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VMware angles Spring as premier Java development tool

Could Spring overtake Enterprise Java Beans? VMware and Google think so, but Red Hat remains doubtful

By Joab Jackson, IDG News Service, 10/21/10

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Oracle may own the Java trademark, but VMware is touting its own Spring framework as the best programming model for enterprise Java developers.

"In the innovation of the Java programming model, I think Spring really plays a leading role there," said Rod Johnson, who is senior vice president and general manager of VMware's SpringSource product division, as well as the creator of the first version of Spring.

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At least one other company seems to share VMware's enthusiasm -- Google has chosen Spring as the preferred programming model for Google App Engine. And at the SpringOne G2X developer conference in Chicago this week, the two companies announced that they have completed a number of integrations between Spring and the Google App Engine and the Google Web Toolkit. Johnson noted that while Google pulled out of the Oracle-controlled JavaOne, it was a major sponsor for the SpringOne conference.

"We talked to our customers -- we wanted to learn where the new growth is, where a lot of the new apps are being written, because that is probably where the growth will be for App Engine. And we felt like Spring is a really good platform for those applications," said Brad Abrams, product manager for Google's developer tools division.

Not everyone is so certain that Spring is the future of enterprise Java development. Red Hat, for instance, has questioned the need for the Spring framework at all.

"The latest iteration of Java can offer a simple, standard architecture that can cut development time while offering an open and standard platform making the need for frameworks like Spring unnecessary," wrote Red Hat Senior Director of JBoss Enterprise Middleware Ashesh Badani, in a blog posting last week.

An open-source project, the Spring framework was designed to help developers quickly structure Java programs, especially Web applications, in an architecturally coherent manner. Since its introduction in 2002, it quickly grew to be one of the most widely used Java frameworks. VMware purchased Johnson's company, SpringSource, in 2009.

At the conference this week, VMware and Google, who started working together earlier this year, displayed the first fruits of their partnership.

Within the next two weeks, a plug-in for the SpringSource Tool Suite will be available that will allow developers to deploy their applications to the Google App Engine. The App Engine only uses a subset of the full range of Java APIs, and so Google worked to ensure that all those APIs used by Spring are available in the Google App Engine, Abrams said.

Also, the Google Web Toolkit has been integrated with Spring Roo, a tool that generates Spring code that conforms to preset requirements in performance security or other aspects. "Now Roo can generate a rich Internet client application using the Google Web Toolkit," Abrams said. Lastly the, Google Speed Tracer, a performance analyzer found in the Chrome browser, has been bundled into Spring Insight, which is SpringSource Tool Suite's own performance analyzer.


The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

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