Commercial Java Platform Enterprise Edition (JEE) application servers have grown so large, complex, and overloaded as to slow application development, complicate deployment, and impose expensive licensing burdens for bundled features IT doesn’t need. Equally important, their heavy footprints make them ill-suited for today’s virtualized data centers. In response, Java developers by the millions have discarded bloated JEE containers in favor of lean software platforms. The choice of a large majority of Java developers today, these lightweight frameworks and application servers harmonize development with IT operations—delivering streamlined application development, huge savings of time and expense, simplicity of deployment, built-in performance management, and the small footprint required for virtualized and cloud environments.