The latest Cumulative Patch release for both JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) v4.2 & v4.3 are now available. Cumulative Patches (CPs) are incremental updates that fix all known issues and are typically made available on a quarterly basis to all customers.

Java SE 6 Support
With today's release, we're please to announce official support for Java SE 6 for JBoss Enterprise Application Platform v4.3 using the Sun JDK. Congratulations to the JBoss team for making this happen! We've updated our list of Compatible & Certified Configurations to reflect this.

More Certified Configurations
You'll also notice that we've now extended the number of Certified operating system, chip architectures & JVM combinations from 16 to 29. Since we can't possibly test every combination, we continue to support any configuration that runs on a JVM that we've certified to, no matter the OS/Chip/JVM combination; we call these Compatible Configurations as we rely on the compatibility of the underlying JVM. We try to be transparent and we want you to know what we've officially fully tested against, hence the distinction between 'Certified' & 'Compatible' configurations.

IBM Mainframe Support
Are you running your Java application on a mainframe? Looking for an alternative application server? We've supported JBoss Enterprise Application Platform on mainframes as a Compatible Configuration for some time, and now, based on customer requests, we've officially added mainframes to our list of Certified Configurations with IBM System z running Red Hat Enterprise Linux. If you're looking for reasons to switch, whether you're a mainframe user or not, we've conveniently listed them for you here.

Are these the only configurations we test? Nope. This isn't our complete list, but it does represent the list we run our full battery of quality, integration and performance tests on for every release. If you're wondering what we test, we cover the topic in this whitepaper about the making of JBoss Enterprise Middleware. Also, Andy Miller, one of our JBoss Engineering VPs, provides detail in this blog post from earlier this year.

If you have configurations that you'd like us to add or are interested in learning more about what tests we run, just let us know by sending a note to jbossquestions@redhat.com.

Today marks the 1 year anniversary where we announced a new JBoss development, distribution and support model that focuses on continuing open source innovation through JBoss.org, while providing longterm enterprise class stability through our supported JBoss Enterprise Middleware subscription products.

So what have we been up to for the last year? I think you'll agree, it's quite an impressive list:

 

JBoss.org
It all started where it should, with our community. JBoss.org got a new look, we introduced new open source middleware projects, and we reached over 20 million project downloads. Also, with the help from the JBoss community and our partners, we helped launch new open source projects and initiatives to advance open source Java, helped create RHQ, a common services project for infrastructure management, and launched project initiatives in SOA Governance. JBoss.org projects continue to gain momentum with developers worldwide.

 

Expanding the JBoss team
It's aways nice to be in a position where we're able to grow the team, and last year we added a great team in MetaMatrix, which brought with it an impressive Data Services Platform, which addresses SOA at the data level and helps enterprises and government agencies bridge the gap between diverse, existing, enterprise data sources. And, more significantly, we're helping to open source this technology so everyone can benefit, starting with the JBoss DNA project. We also recently added Amentra, a unique and highly talented consulting firm that focuses on mentoring clients first, to help better guarantee long term success.

 

JBoss Enterprise Middleware
A year ago, we announced our intentions of what JBoss Enterprise Middleware will be: fully supported enterprise class open source solutions with stable releases, longterm product support, pre-integrated, tested and certified distributions combining the latest enterprise ready JBoss.org technologies. So how did we do?

 

Under this new enterprise model, in addition to all of our standard update releases, we've delivered JBoss Enterprise Application Platform v4.2 and v4.3, our certified enterprise application server that integrates over 15 JBoss.org projects, like JBoss Hibernate and JBoss Seam, with our popular JBoss Application Server. We recently achieved Common Criteria evaluation for Application Platform v4.3. We've introduced JBoss Developer Studio, the first open source, Eclipse-based, integrated development environment to combine tooling with an industry leading runtime. We recently launched the JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform, which integrates JBoss ESB, JBoss jBPM, & JBoss Rules into the first comprehensive open source SOA solution.

 

We've also added over 70 middleware partners, added numerous customers, selected innovators of the year, saw strong business growth, had a record number of attendees and IT decision makers at JBoss World, and, launched Enterprise Acceleration to help further increase JBoss adoption and set our goals for the future.

 

So what will we be doing in the next year? Stay tuned to Java One to find out.