SpringSource, the open source supplier of the Spring Framework for developing Java applications, is enhancing deployment of the Java application server via a new version of its lightweight server based on Apache Tomcat, the SpringSource tc Server, Spring Edition.

In the new SpringSource nomenclature, "Spring Edition" sits at the top, where "enterprise edition" does in other product lines.

The Spring Edition tries to close the gap between developing Java applications and using them in operations. Monitoring mechanisms and application metrics implemented in Spring Edition gives developers insight into application health and performance, the same view that the operations managers will have once the application goes into production.

The SpringSource tc Server expands Tomcat's advantages as a lightweight server of Java Servlets in Web applications. Tomcat takes Servlets, which are Java objects or discrete modules of code, and uses them to answer a request for a specific service.

The request usually comes from the browser of an end user and the response is likely to be dynamic HTML or XML code that accomplishes something upon receipt by the end user.

Servlets are to Java developers what Active Server Pages are to Microsoft .Net developers -- they provide the interactive elements on the Web page to the end user. Tomcat (and tc Server) specialize in running Servlets.

As Java applications produced with the Spring Framework are deployed, particularly on a Web site with variable traffic, they may run into performance problems as traffic mounts. The Spring Edition used with the SpringSource Tool Suite gives developers a chance to engineer in efficiencies and purge bottlenecks, before applications reach production, said Sean Connolly, VP of product management for VMware in an interview.