Spring (company)

Spring (previously known as SpringSource) was a software company founded by Rod Johnson, who also created the Spring Framework, an open-source application framework for enterprise Java applications. It was purchased by VMware for $420 million in August 2009.[1]

This article is about the computer software company. For the media company with the same name, see FremantleMedia Australia.
Spring
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryComputer software
FounderRod Johnson
HeadquartersPalo Alto, California, USA
ParentVMware
Websitespring.io

History

Originally incorporated by Rob Johnson in 2004 as Interface21, the company was renamed SpringSource in 2007 to better reflect its association with the Spring Framework.[2] Over time most of the Spring developers were employed full-time by the company which offered training and consulting services to finance its activities, since Spring itself is open-source and is freely available to all. The company was eventually renamed as Spring.

Recognizing that the platform of choice for most Spring applications was Apache Tomcat, Spring acquired Covalent Technologies on January 29, 2008, which was then one of the leading contributors to the project.[3][4] Like Spring, Covalent was the financial vehicle supporting some of the developers of Tomcat.

Several other acquisitions then followed:

As a result, SpringSource had at the time employed the lead developers and committers of several high-profile Java projects, including the Apache Tomcat, Apache HTTP Server, Hyperic, Groovy and Grails open source communities. SpringSource was also a participant in the Java Community Process.

Using these acquisitions, the company's business expanded beyond support for its application frameworks, Spring and Grails. It could now offer a suite of software products across all three stages of the enterprise Java application life cycle: build (develop), run (deploy), and manage. SpringSource created two commercial server products specifically aimed at Spring developers: TC Server, a commercial version of Tomcat integrated with Hyperic for deployment and management, and DM Server, an OSGi based server which never was commercially viable. After spending millions on development with no result, it was subsequently donated to the Eclipse Foundation as the Virgo project. Both servers came with a number of customer support options.

Educational services expanded to offer training for the Spring framework, Apache Tomcat, TC Server and Groovy/Grails through its educational services unit, the SpringSource University and also a number of partner training providers.

Acquisition by VMware

In August 2009, SpringSource was purchased for $420 million by VMware,[1] where it was maintained for some time as a separate division within VMware. The commercial products were rebadged as the vFabric Application Suite. Acquisitions continued including RabbitMQ (an open-source AMQP message broker), Redis (an open source, noSQL key-value store) and Gemstone (developer of several data-management products). These products (except Redis) also became part of the vFabric product set.

In April 2013, VMware, along with its parent company EMC Corporation, formally created a joint venture (with GE) called Pivotal Software. All of VMware's application-oriented products, including Spring, were transferred to this organization.[8][9] VMWare reacquired Pivotal in 2019 [10] and folded it into the Tanzu application suite.[10]

VMware sold the Gemstone object database products to GemTalk Systems in May 2013.[11] Pivotal ended their sponsorship of Groovy/Grails in March 2015.[12]

References
  1. "VMWare Acquires SpringSource". TechCrunch. AOL. August 11, 2009. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
  2. Taft, Darryl K. (2007-11-20). "Interface21 Is Now SpringSource". eWEEK. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
  3. Johnson, Rod (January 29, 2008). "Some Decisions are Easy". SpringSource Blog. Archived from the original on 2013-07-13. Retrieved 2013-07-12.
  4. "SpringSource pounces on Covalent". The Register. 2008-01-29.
  5. "SpringSource Acquires Groovy and Grails company (G2One)". IndicThreads. 2008-11-12. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
  6. "Hyperic acquisition binds Spring Framework to cloud". The Register. 2009-05-04.
  7. Taft, Darryl K. (2009-08-19). "SpringSource Acquires Cloud Foundry, Launches New Cloud Platform". eWEEK. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
  8. "GE Joins EMC and VMware in a Joint Venture to Challenge Software Megavendors in the Cloud". Press Release. April 24, 2013. Archived from the original on April 28, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
  9. Quentin Hardy (April 24, 2013). "Pivotal's Audacious Plan". New York Times Bits. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
  10. "VMware Completes Acquisition of Pivotal". Press Release.
  11. GemTalk Systems (May 2, 2013). "GemTalk Systems Acquires GemStone/S Products from VMware". PRWeb. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
  12. "Groovy 2.4 And Grails 3.0 To Be Last Major Releases Under Pivotal Sponsorship". 19 Jan 2015.
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