Apache Tomcat Gets An Enterprise Version, SpringSource tc

SpringSource, supplier of the Spring Framework for Java development, has launched a hardened enterprise version of Apache Tomcat, a lightweight application server frequently used in Web applications.

Tomcat originated with the open source Apache Software Foundation as a Java Servlet engine or software server for running the Java commands that manage a server. Its popularity has prompted an expansion of its role as a lean Java application server, which lets many users seek responses from a Web site application.

Spring itself started as a lowbrow alternative to complex Java application development. It shunned Java 2EE at first, simplifying and enabling development with Java Standard Edition and POJOs, or Plain Old Java Objects. It gradually grew into a platform for producing Java Enterprise Edition applications without the programmer needing to remember dozens of APIs or write so much code.

SpringSource tc, Springsource's version of Tomcat, includes built-in diagnostics that allow developers and project managers to determine how well code is running and where potential bottlenecks are.

It can be installed in place of Tomcat 6, the current Apache version, without disrupting applications, Shaun Connolly, VP of product management, said in a statement.

SpringSource plans to deliver a virtual appliance based on SpringSource tc designed to run under VMware's vSphere 4. Packaging an application with its operating system and SpringSource tc would position a set of virtualized files -- the virtual appliance -- to be deployed in an internal or external cloud.

Connolly said the recession is accelerating adoption of lean software operation, and Tomcat, with its straightforward functionality, fits into that picture.

SpringSource acquired Tomcat expertise in its January 2008 acquisition of Covalent, a commercial supporter of Tomcat, the Apace Web Server, and other Apache software.

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