PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire - Mar 14, 2012) - VMware, Inc. (NYSE: [ VMW ]), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced all the major extensions to the Spring Framework are now compatible with Spring 3.1, the latest version of the popular open source Java development framework. Spring Integration, Spring Security, Spring Batch, Spring Data, Spring Mobile and Spring for Android all now support Spring 3.1, making it easier and faster for enterprise developers to build the next generation of enterprise applications.

"Driving application development for today's enterprises with powerful simplifying technology, Spring is the premier choice for developers looking for an extensible, portable and open source framework," said Adrian Colyer, CTO Cloud and Application Services, VMware. "The latest release of the Spring Framework and its major extensions continue the tradition of taking care of the infrastructure so developers can focus on building applications that address today's business requirements."

The Spring Framework makes it easy for enterprise developers to integrate security models, databases, web services and messaging systems into applications that can be deployed and thrive within any Java environment. Spring makes it simple to access enterprise information stored in traditional databases as well as new NoSQL data platforms and "big data" distributed processing solutions like Apache Hadoop™. With the addition of new REST enhancements, Java developers can use Spring to build the critical services to mobilize enterprise applications.

VMware reports that average monthly Spring downloads via Maven Central have grown 40% year to date and all community participation metrics for Spring are at the highest levels ever recorded. Recent research from Evans Data ("Spring Usage Study," Evans Data Corporation, September 2011) analyzes the ubiquity achieved by Spring:

• Spring is the framework of choice among expert Java developers
• Spring developers report productivity and speed of deployment as the top two reasons they use Spring: 70 percent of Spring users report at least a 50 percent productivity gain by using Spring and 73 percent report that Spring allows them to deliver projects twice as fast
• More than two thirds of Java developers are either using Spring today or plan to do so within the next two years
• More than half of Spring users expect to grow or significantly grow their use of Spring
• Spring users are more cloud ready; The Evans Data results show heavy Spring adopters are more likely to have already deployed applications to the cloud
• More than half of all Spring developers report that they plan to move Java applications to a lightweight server such as Apache Tomcat within one year.

Spring community members are invited to attend the [ SpringOne On the Road ] event in Europe in April and May to learn about the newest innovations for the framework. These special developer-focused one-day events will be co-hosted with the [ Cloud Foundry Open Tour ].

Availability
The Spring family of open source projects can be found on the Spring community Web site at [ www.springsource.org ]. Spring projects are available under the Apache 2.0 open-source, free software license.

Additional Resources
Spring Community: [ www.springsource.org ]
Cloud Foundry Open Tour: [ http://opentour.cloudfoundry.com ]
SpringOne On the Road: [ http://www.springsource.org/springone-on-the-road ]
What is Spring? Video: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkjRvBMwzo4 ]

About VMware
VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2011 revenues of $3.77 billion, VMware has more than 350,000 customers and 50,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at [ www.vmware.com ].