Java PaaS Provider Jelastic Adds TomEE Support

Java-based Platform as a Service (PaaS) provider Jelastic Inc. has added the Apache TomEE application server to the list of software stacks supported on its platform. Jelastic is the first public PaaS to offer TomEE support.

TomEE (pronounced "Tommy") is a version of Apache Tomcat aimed at the Java Enterprise Edition (JavaEE) Web Profile, a subset of Java EE APIs focused on Web app development. The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) released TomEE as a Java EE 6 Web Profile certified stack last summer. Available under the Apache 2.0 license, it integrates a number of Java projects, including Apache OpenWebBeans, Apache MyFaces, Apache ActiveMQ, Apache CXF and Apache OpenJPA. Version 1.5.1 was released in December 2012.

Support for function-based profiles was one of the most talked about capabilities of Java EE 6. The Web Profile was the first profile defined by the Java Community Process (JCP) expert group, and support for TomEE was among the top requests among Jelastic users, said company COO Dmitry Sotnikov. "TomEE is a natural fit for any cloud platform that offers Tomcat, as it offers Java EE compliance, but with the footprint and startup time of Tomcat," Sotnikov said in a statement.

"In Java EE 5 and previous versions, in order to achieve certification, you had to implement the full set of Java EE APIs," explained Gartner Inc. analyst Massimo Pezzini in an earlier interview. "And there are a ton of those. This is the reason there aren't that many products that are Java EE certified. Basically, it's only the big vendors—JBoss, Oracle WebLogic, IBM WebSphere—who can really afford to put together a Java EE-compliant product. But with profiles, you can define a subset of the Java EE APIs and achieve certification only for that particular subset."

Jelastic is a Java and PHP cloud hosting platform designed for hosted services providers. It runs any Java application in the cloud, the company says, without code or language changes, and without the need to write for specific APIs. It supports any JVM-based application, including apps developed with Java 6, Java 7, JRuby, Scala and Groovy. The Jelastic platform supports three SQL databases: MariaDB, MySQL and PostgreSQL. It also provides non-SQL database support for MongoDB and CouchDB. Along with the newly added TomEE, its list of supported app servers includes Tomcat (6 and 7), GlassFish and Jetty. Jelastic provides its users with developer tools through plug-ins for such build systems as Maven, Ant, Hudson and Jenkins.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Jelastic was founded in 2010 by Hivetext, a Zhytomyr, Ukraine-based startup focused on Java application development in the cloud. Ruslan Synytsky, founder and CEO of Jelastic, has said that his company's flagship platform is the first Java PaaS to provide "full application compatibility and developer control," and "the only choice for Java developers" who want to avoid lock-in.

Jelastic is hosted in the United States with ServInt; in Russia with Rusonyx; in Germany with dogado; in the United Kingdom and Ireland with Layershift; in Japan with Tsukaeru; in Brazil with Websolute; in Sweden with Elastx; and in Finland with Planeetta.

More information about the Jelastic PaaS is available on the company's Web site. More information about Apache TomEE is available on the TomEE download page.

Posted by John K. Waters on March 13, 2013