The Jakarta EE Working Group Releases Jakarta EE 9.1 as Industry Continues to Embrace Open Source Enterprise Java

Jakarta EE 9.1 enables developers to build applications on Java SE 11; Five compatible implementations are already available

BRUSSELS, Belgium, May 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Jakarta EE Working Group, hosted by the Eclipse Foundation, one of the world’s largest open source software foundations, today announced the release of the Jakarta EE 9.1 Platform and Web Profile specifications and related TCKs. This release, the first incremental release for Jakarta EE, marks an acceleration in innovation for open source enterprise Java, as it makes Jakarta EE compatible with Java SE 11 and already has five compatible implementations from the global leaders in the Java ecosystem.

The Jakarta EE 9.1 release provides users with new multiple new updates and options, enabling enterprises building cloud native Java applications to:

• Develop and deploy Jakarta EE 9.1 applications on Java SE 11, the most current LTS release of Java SE, as well as Java SE 8
• Take advantage of new Java SE 11 features, added since Java SE 8, in their Jakarta EE 9.1 applications
• Leverage new technologies that support Java SE 11 in their Jakarta EE 9.1 applications
• Move existing Jakarta EE 9 applications to Java SE 11 without changes
• Migrate existing Java EE and Jakarta EE 8 applications to Jakarta EE 9.1 using the same straightforward process available for migration to Jakarta EE 9

“This latest release for Jakarta EE is really indicative of the community momentum we’re seeing in Jakarta EE,” said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. “With EE 9.1 following only a few months after EE 9, the Jakarta EE community is now delivering a regular cadence of releases. With the recent ‘big bang’ namespace shift of Jakarta EE 9, the momentum building in certified Jakarta EE-compatible products, as well as a deep interest in firms that want to move their existing Java applications into cloud environments, the enterprise Java industry is experiencing a renaissance.”

The 2020 Jakarta EE Developer Survey has shown Java SE 11 usage growing from 20% of respondents in 2019 to 28% in 2020. By delivering Jakarta EE 9.1 support on Java SE 11, the Jakarta EE WG is providing more choices and flexibility for the Jakarta EE community to mix and match technologies for their specific application development requirements. With upwards of 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500 running enterprise Java apps in production, Jakarta EE 9.1 and future releases will build on these advances to deliver continuous innovation for this massive installed base. The specifications were developed under the open, vendor-neutral Jakarta EE Specification Process, which replaces the Java Community Process (JCP) for Java EE.

Jakarta EE 9.1 has five compatible implementations, including:

• IBM Open Liberty
• Eclipse Glassfish
• Apache TomEE
• Red Hat WildFly
• ManageCat ManageFish

The Jakarta EE community welcomes contributions and participation by all interested parties. As the Jakarta EE WG continues to build towards the release of Jakarta EE 10, including new cloud native functionality, this is the ideal time to join the community and have your voice heard. To learn more and to participate, all are welcome to connect with the global community at the following page: https://jakarta.ee/connect/

Companies that value enterprise Java and would like to help shape its future can join the Jakarta EE Working Group. Membership in the working group allows enterprises and other organizations to support the sustainability of the community, participate in marketing programs, and engage directly with the community. Learn more about the benefits and advantages of membership here: https://jakarta.ee/membership/.

For those organizations interested in learning more about how Jakarta EE can benefit them, the Jakarta EE WG has published a white paper on the features and capabilities of Jakarta EE. These capabilities can help companies accelerate time-to-market for commercial offerings, increase the efficiency of software development, and transition to a cloud native future. Download it here: https://outreach.jakartaee.org/white-paper-java-applications.

Quotes from Jakarta EE Working Group Members

IBM

“The release of Jakarta EE 9.1 and its support for Java SE 11, marks another milestone in its evolution as the platform for cloud-native Java innovation. Enterprise Java continues to have an exciting future!” said Melissa Modjeski, IBM VP of App Platform and Integration, IBM Automation. “Open Liberty is fully certified as a Jakarta EE 9.1 compatible implementation. Our IBM Liberty architecture allowed us to certify both Jakarta EE versions (9.0 and 9.1) using the same version of Open Liberty (21.0.0.3-Beta), supporting both Java SE 8 and 11 runtimes.”

Jelastic

“Jakarta EE 9.1 is already available for a try within Jelastic PaaS,” said Tetiana Fydorenchyk, vice president, marketing at Jelastic. “We believe that fast implementation of the most recent version helps to speed up a new jakarta.* namespace adoption and further innovations using cloud-native technologies. As a result, this is a win-win situation for the Java-oriented vendors, customers and community in general.”

Oracle

“Oracle is committed to the evolution of Enterprise Java, supporting the Eclipse Foundation, and the Jakarta EE standard,” said Tom Snyder, VP of Engineering, Enterprise Cloud Native Java, Oracle. “Oracle is proud of its continued leadership and staff contributions across a wide landscape of Jakarta EE specifications and implementations. We look forward to the continued evolution of Jakarta EE toward an efficient, stable, and compatible platform for both on-premise and cloud based development and deployment.”

Payara

“Payara are excited by the release of Jakarta EE 9.1 as this paves the way for innovation in Jakarta EE 10,” said Steve Millidge, Payara’s founder. “We support running Jakarta EE 9.1 applications now in Payara Platform 5 and will soon release Payara Platform 6 alpha 1 as a Compatible Implementation. Congratulations to all on this significant milestone.”

Red Hat

“Red Hat has been actively involved in the delivery of the Jakarta EE 9.1 because we see it as an important step forward,” said Mark Little, vice president, engineering at Red Hat. “It is critical that Jakarta EE remains a stable evolutionary platform for the industry in general and Red Hat customers in particular. Jakarta EE 9.1 maintains stability with continued support for Java SE 8 while adding support for Java SE 11. Red Hat plans to deliver Jakarta EE 9.1 compatibility with a WildFly Preview.”

Tomitribe

“After six months of work, this release reinforces Jakarta EE dynamics driven by community and diversity in implementations that unleash the horizon for Jakarta EE 10 and beyond,” said Jean-Louis Monteiro, Tomitribe’s director of engineering. “This, along with the incredible sprint done by the Apache TomEE community to accomplish 9.1 compatibility, proves one more time that the ecosystem is more vibrant than ever and willing to keep paving the way toward the future.”

VMware

“Spring Framework 6 will move to Jakarta EE 9+, adopting the jakarta.* namespace in all applicable packages. A first milestone is scheduled for Q3 2021, with a 6.0 GA release (and a corresponding Spring Boot 3.0 GA release) to follow in 2022,” said Juergen Hoeller, VMware’s senior staff engineer and Springboot Framework project lead. “Our primary interest is in individual infrastructure specifications such as Servlet, WebSocket, Persistence and Validation, evolving our long-standing integration arrangements within the Spring programming and configuration model. We expect common open source libraries (as included in Spring Boot’s dependency management) to move to the jakarta.* namespace in the same timeframe.”

About Jakarta EE and the Eclipse Foundation

The Jakarta EE Working Group, hosted by the Eclipse Foundation, is the home of open source, cloud native, enterprise Java innovation. Through Jakarta EE, the world’s leading technology vendors with large installed bases of customers running Java workloads including Fujitsu, IBM, Oracle, Payara, Red Hat, and Tomitribe, are collaborating on advancing enterprise Java technologies in the cloud. With the release of the Jakarta EE 9.1, Jakarta EE has provided a new baseline for the evolution and innovation of enterprise Java technologies under an open, vendor-neutral, community-driven process. To learn more, follow us on Twitter @JakartaEE or visit jakarta.ee.

The Eclipse Foundation provides our global community of individuals and organizations with a mature, scalable, and business-friendly environment for open source software collaboration and innovation. The Foundation is home to the Eclipse IDE, Jakarta EE, and over 400 open source projects, including runtimes, tools, and frameworks for cloud and edge applications, IoT, AI, automotive, systems engineering, distributed ledger technologies, open processor designs, and many others. The Eclipse Foundation is an international non-profit association supported by over 330 members, including industry leaders who value open source as a key enabler for their business strategies. To learn more, follow us on Twitter @EclipseFdn, LinkedIn, or visit eclipse.org.

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