Does Java EE 7 need another data caching specification?
Red Hat thinks so, and today submitted a new request to the Java Community Process (JCP) to push their data caching ideas forward into Java EE 7. The JCP approved JSR 342 last month, getting the ball rolling for the full creation of the Java EE 7 specifications.
“The themes of Java EE 7 are all about continuing to ease development and making Java cloud ready,” Craig Muzilla, vice president of Red Hat’s Middleware Business Unit told InternetNews.com.
Muzilla noted that the new data caching specification is being submitted in the same spirit of cloud enablement that is at the core of Java EE 7. He explained that when a large umbrella specification like JSR 342 comes out, it includes a number of high-level concepts. Muzilla added that the detailed features are not all specified at the time of an umbrella JSR, which is why Red Hat feels it is now the right time to make a contribution.
“Caching has been part of Java for a long time, but not widespread, distributed and elastic caching,” Muzilla said. “We started working on a project within the JBoss open source community called Infinispan and we’ll use that effort as the basis for the spec submission into Java.
He added that Red Hat is trying to take the open source specification that has been available in the JBoss community and make it available to the broader Java community.
Red Hat’s caching contribution is on top of a number other technologies that it had previously submitted to be part of Java EE 7. Those include Context Dependency Injection (CDI) 1.1, Data Grids and Bean Validation.
“These are items that are expansions of what was available in Java EE 6 and now the new versions will be included in Java EE 7,” Muzilla said.
Red Hat has other Java technologies that it will be trying to submit for Java EE 7, though Muzilla noted that Data Caching is likely the most important one.
“We think Data Caching will have the most impact for being able to do cloud computing,” Muzilla said. “There are many features that will be part of Java EE 7 for cloud computing but we believe that this will be a big one.”
A key part of Red Hat being able to submit the new Data Caching specification is the fact that the JCP itself now functions as a body that is willing and able to take submissions.
Red Hat Gives Oracle’s Java Stewardship a Thumbs-up
“I think that Oracle has been a good steward of the Java process, it’s unfortunate to see folks like Apache, but they are taking submissions for new technologies and move Java forward,” Muzilla said.
The Apache Software Foundation quit the Executive Committee of the JCP at the end of 2010, over a dispute with Oracle around open source licensing.
“Under the Sun stewardship, Java had gotten stalled and it was difficult to get new major releases out,” Muzilla said. “Now we’re seeing new specifications and the evolution of the platform and it’s happening in a timely manner, so I think that’s positive for our users and for the industry.”
