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Spring and everything around it is heading for the could. Literally with the speed of light. It only takes few weeks between new announcements around this topic. At the end of the day, Spring, VMWare and Google are providing a cloud based deployment platform for Spring based Java applications. That sounds modern, fast, easy and is potentially very interesting. It may provide the easiest, no-comprise way to publish Java applications. If you look at other cloud alternatives they are either more restrictive for the developers ("old" Google AppEngine) or provide services at an infrastructure level like Amazon's EC2.
But: Spring and VMware are going to build their own Java universe where they dictate momentum, their 'standards' and more and more the commercial consequences as well. From an Enterprise Java point of view it's simpler. Too many things are called "Spring". And this makes it easy on the first look. You don't have to talk about 30 something specifications but about one big framework. And while Spring and Rod Johnson in particular have been extremely valuable in influencing the direction of Java (2)EE after the 1.4 release to the new, much more pragmatic world of Java EE 5, Spring has also caused polarization and fragmentation. Instead of helping forge the Java community together, it has sought to advanced its own cause. Which is perfectly valid - but should be recognized for what it is. Spring is not necessarily open, is not free, is not a community or even multi-vendor effort. Lock in with Spring is just another type of vendor-lockin. And that is, why it will never be a replacement for Java EE.
But there is another takeaway for the Java community and the owner of Java. The hype around innovative and integrated solutions is a proof for the Java EE universe moving too slowly along. Bring in more flexibility. Have more courage with changes. Find a way to adopt trends faster and support better modularity.
But: Spring and VMware are going to build their own Java universe where they dictate momentum, their 'standards' and more and more the commercial consequences as well. From an Enterprise Java point of view it's simpler. Too many things are called "Spring". And this makes it easy on the first look. You don't have to talk about 30 something specifications but about one big framework. And while Spring and Rod Johnson in particular have been extremely valuable in influencing the direction of Java (2)EE after the 1.4 release to the new, much more pragmatic world of Java EE 5, Spring has also caused polarization and fragmentation. Instead of helping forge the Java community together, it has sought to advanced its own cause. Which is perfectly valid - but should be recognized for what it is. Spring is not necessarily open, is not free, is not a community or even multi-vendor effort. Lock in with Spring is just another type of vendor-lockin. And that is, why it will never be a replacement for Java EE.
But there is another takeaway for the Java community and the owner of Java. The hype around innovative and integrated solutions is a proof for the Java EE universe moving too slowly along. Bring in more flexibility. Have more courage with changes. Find a way to adopt trends faster and support better modularity.
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