Just to echo some of the sentiments of others, I also support this and find it to be quite a relief.
Java EE is already 90% cloud-ready due to its focus on clear packaging, deployment and portability -- concepts we've taken it on the chin over at times in the past, which are paying dividends now. Very vindicating. When it comes to the last 10% of unmet cloud needs, we are clearly in a time of experimentation, not a time of standardization.
No doubt this will be seen as some sort of failure by those who don't understand the role specifications play in the market, when in fact this is a prime example of an excellent long term decision and the value specifications bring.
Vendors innovate, collectively we standardize. We're not done innovating in this space.
-David
On Aug 30, 2012, at 9:31 AM, Linda DeMichiel wrote:
>
> When we announced the Java EE 7 JSR back in early 2011, our plans were
> that we would release it by Q4 2012. While this target date was three
> years after the release of Java EE 6 and certainly later than we would
> have liked, at the time it seemed like an aggressive schedule given
> the proposed scope of the release. We have since adjusted this date
> once (to the spring of 2013) in order to accommodate the inclusion of
> additional JSRs of importance to the community (in particular, Web
> Sockets and JSON-P).
>
> As you know, our focus in the Java EE 7 release has been three-fold:
> to continue to invest in significant enhancements in simplification,
> usability, and functionality in updated versions of the JSRs that are
> currently part of the platform; to introduce new JSRs that reflect
> emerging needs in the community; and to add support for use in cloud
> environments.
>
> At this stage of the process, I think it is safe to say that
> maintaining the entirety of this agenda -- particularly the aspects
> related to PaaS enablement and multitenancy support -- puts our
> proposed dates at very significant risk. We estimate that
> realistically we would not be ready with a release of Java EE 7
> until the spring of 2014. In our opinion, that is way too long.
>
> After considerable soul-searching as to the causes of this delay --
> limited industry experience in the cloud area when we started this
> work, together with a lack of maturity in the space for provisioning,
> multi-tenancy, elasticity, and the deployment of applications in the
> cloud -- we are proposing that we defer to Java EE 8 the areas of PaaS
> enablement and multitenancy support.
>
> Of course, we continue to believe that Java EE is well-suited for use
> in the cloud, although such use might not be quite ready for full
> standardization. Even today, without Java EE 7, vendors such as
> Oracle, Red Hat, IBM, and CloudBees have begun to offer the ability to
> run Java EE applications in the cloud.
>
> Postponing the remainder of the work on cloud support until Java EE 8
> will therefore also have the important advantage of enabling Java EE
> vendors to gain more experience with implementations in this area, and
> will thus help us avoid risks entailed by trying to standardize in an
> area that is arguably still some time away from being mature.
>
> It is important to note that the features that we have already added
> to Java EE 7 for cloud support -- such as resource definition
> metadata, improved security configuration, JPA schema generation --
> serve as enhancements to the Java EE 7 programming model in non-cloud
> environments as well. The inclusion of these features in Java EE 7
> will help expedite a cloud-oriented release of Java EE 8 in the
> future.
>
> We plan to target this Java EE 8 release for the spring of 2015. We
> expect to include new JSRs for application configuration, for
> JSON binding support, and others, which we hope to launch in advance
> of the completion of Java EE 7.
>
> This shift in the scope of Java EE 7 also allows us to better retain
> our focus on enhancements in simplification and usability and to
> deliver on schedule those features that have been most requested by
> developers. These include the support for HTML 5 in the form of Web
> Sockets and JSON-P; the simplified JMS APIs; improved Managed Bean
> alignment, including transactional interceptors; the JAX-RS client
> API; support for method-level validation; a much more comprehensive
> expression language; and more.
>
> To conclude, what we are proposing is to hold to the current dates for
> Java EE 7 (spring of next year); maintain the focus on all of the
> feature enhancements targeted at simplification and usability; retain
> the cloud-related features we have already defined; and defer the
> remaining portions of the cloud-oriented work to Java EE 8.
>
> We feel strongly that this is the right thing to do, in view of what
> we and our team have heard from members of the community.
>
> Please let us know if you have any major concerns with this proposed
> direction.
>
> thanks!
>
> -Linda
>