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SpringSource Acquires Hyperic, Possibly Set to Target Microsoft and IBM 130

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the new-era-of-open-source dept.
Many sources are reporting that SpringSource has acquired Hyperic, creating a company that could go after IBM and Microsoft. SpringSource has long dreamed of being able to offer a complete open source solution that accelerates the entire build, run, manage Java application lifecycle, and Hyperic offers the last piece of the puzzle. "Regardless, the SpringSource/Hyperic combination creates a clear and present danger to IBM and Microsoft, two companies that have largely stood alone in the ability to build, run, and manage applications. It's also a significant boon to companies looking to open source to save money and improve productivity. Is it a sign of good things to come from not only SpringSource, but also open source, generally? Time will tell, but I suspect we're on the cusp of an aggressive and ambitious new phase in open-source competition."
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SpringSource Acquires Hyperic, Possibly Set to Target Microsoft and IBM More

SpringSource Acquires Hyperic, Possibly Set to Target Microsoft and IBM

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  • watch out Redmond (Score:4, Funny)

    by justindarc ( 1046048 ) on Monday May 04, 2009 @02:47PM (#27820157)
    expecting chair storms

  • Umm... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by qw0ntum ( 831414 ) on Monday May 04, 2009 @02:49PM (#27820179) Journal
    Microsoft and IBM have lots of competitors (Oracle comes readily to mind). What makes this different, besides the fact I've never heard of either of these companies? A blogger I've also never heard of who wants hits?

    • Re:Umm... (Score:5, Informative)

      by youngdev ( 1238812 ) on Monday May 04, 2009 @03:09PM (#27820447)

      Are you kidding? SpringSource is _THE_ standard IoC container for the Java Language. Their ideas have influenced a wide ranging array of Java-based products including hibernate (http://hibernate.org), google guice (http://code.google.com/p/google-guice/), apache tomcat (http://tomcat.apache.org), just to name a few. Just because you aren't familiar with these technologies does not mean this is not a pretty big deal. Aside from that, the spring source company has successfully built a profitable company around their open source technologies while still providing the source freely to the community. Their influence can hardly be understated even if you have never used on their technologies directly. http://www.springsource.com/customers [springsource.com]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by qw0ntum ( 831414 )
        Cool, thanks for filling me in. That was an honest question. Do you really think this merger is a "clear and present danger" to Microsoft and IBM (another honest question, o cynics of /.)?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by julesh ( 229690 )

          Cool, thanks for filling me in. That was an honest question. Do you really think this merger is a "clear and present danger" to Microsoft and IBM (another honest question, o cynics of /.)?

          No. Spring Framework is a clear and present danger to Sun's J2EE standards, because it provides a lot of the same benefits (particularly if combined with a good ORM librar -- e.g. Hibernate, which it integrates with particularly well) with substantially lower overhead. To the extent that IBM's business model is based on

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by tomhudson ( 43916 )

        Considering that Spring is under the Apache 2.0 license [wikipedia.org], and Java is now GPL'd, it's not like they hold the exclusive "keys to the kingdom." There's more to life and computers than Java.

        • There's more to life and computers than Java.

          Let us pray so that this evil will be striken from our eyes:

          Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of pointers, I will fear no leaks: For GC art with me...

        • There's more to life and computers than Java.

          LIES!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Burkin ( 1534829 )
        So IBM is going to quake in its boots over something that they can pick up and freely use in their own Java stack (since its Apache 2.0) basically putting Spring out of business? Wow that sounds like a solid winner there! Secondly, why should Microsoft care when the greatest share of developers for its platform are using either C/C++ or C#?

        • I'm not saying that SpringSource is the IBM/MS Killer. I was just trying to give context to a company that was being written off as a non-player. If the Sun/Oracle merge has taught us anything, it should be that the technology landscape can change in almost an instant and any move by any company should be watched and analyzed for its potential impact on your product/technology.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by kv9 ( 697238 )

            I'm not saying that SpringSource is the IBM/MS Killer. I was just trying to give context to a company that [...]

            maybe they just misunderstanded you.

      • Re:Umm... (Score:5, Funny)

        by afabbro ( 33948 ) on Monday May 04, 2009 @04:01PM (#27821247) Homepage
        They are also the market leader for maximizing synergy in cross-platform, dynamic object-oriented open source mindshare solutions.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by noidentity ( 188756 )
        Hey, where do I sign up to astroturf for this company? Uh oh, did I just break the first rule of astroturfing, "don't talk about astroturfing"?

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by noidentity ( 188756 )

        Their influence can hardly be understated even if you have never used on their technologies directly.

        Sorry about my previous message; I see now that you were saying that they have so little influence that it cannot be understated.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by iwein ( 561027 )
        SpringSource is _THE_ standard IoC container for the Java Language

        It's flattering, but incorrect. First of all SpringSource is the company employing the vast majority of Spring committers, but there is a difference between the framework and the company.

        Second, Spring is in fact not a standard. It is the de facto standard, which sounds cool to people who give a damn about standards.

        I think both of these things are good, you don't want any company to own your framework of choice and you don't want your

    • Who are SpringSource and Hyperic, indeed...
      • Hyperic makes a really good java based app/server/network monitoring and management tool. Their stuff is really good. However, as their offering is "FOSS" but crippled, I have looked more towards Pandora FMS. They make Nagios look like........nagios, for complexity.

  • I don't mean anything bad by SpringSource, but those of us in the trenches that have had their pre-purchase findings ignored in favor of some dog-awful monstrosity of an application understand that they probably don't have much of a chance unless they score better 'incentives' than an IBM or Microsoft rep. Along with some very flexible morals, it takes deeep pockets.

  • From the summary, it sounds like the company would try to acquire Microsoft and IBM next. Only later it becomes clear that going after refers to their product offerings. Good luck with that, not that they need it with their obviously superior quality.

  • Two questions (Score:5, Insightful)

    by chill ( 34294 ) on Monday May 04, 2009 @02:56PM (#27820253) Journal

    1. Who the hell is SpringSource?
    2. Who the hell is Hyberic?

    Regardless, the SpringSource/Hyperic combination creates a clear and present danger to IBM and Microsoft...

    Unless SpringSource or Hyperic has a few billion dollars in the bank that I'm blissfully unaware of, or their own nuclear arsenal, I don't believe this blogger is using the phrase "clear and present danger" in a manner consistent with reality.

    • Oh, he used them quite well. His use of them got him front page slashdot, and all the thousands of ad impressions that come with that.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by chill ( 34294 )

        AdBlock be praised!

        Still... he did a nice job of whoring. Now only if there was some way for Slashdot to have people with some sort of control over the acceptance of articles. The newspapers have a system. I believe they call them "editors", though I have heard less flattering terms being used.

    • Re:Two questions (Score:5, Funny)

      by 14erCleaner ( 745600 ) <FourteenerCleaner@yahoo.com> on Monday May 04, 2009 @03:19PM (#27820593) Homepage Journal

      Who the hell is Hyberic?

      It's spelled Hyperic. You're probably confusing it with hyperbolic, like this press release.

      • Or, maybe hyperbaric, as in, oxygen at high pressure, because whoever wrote that press release sounds a little loopy...

    • It is buried in reality, at least in the bank accounts of SpringSource.

      1.) IBM/Oracle/Microsoft have cash and are itching to buy companies.

      2.) Announce new Open Source panacea that will "beat IBM/Microsoft/etc".

      3.) Step back and wait for the buyout offers to begin.

      4.) Profit.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by glitch23 ( 557124 )

      2. Who the hell is Hyberic?

      Hyperic is a company that makes a product called Hyperic HQ which is used to monitor applications/services/servers much like Nagios or HP OpenView Operations. It can monitor using SNMP or by an installed Hyperic HQ agent (java-based) on a server. The agents are capable of detecting, using platform-dependent APIs, the number of CPUs, hard drives, network interfaces, memory, network settings, etc. as well as certain enterprise-level applications such as databases, application servers, etc. If using the Hyper

  • News isn't really news, news at 11. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anenome ( 1250374 ) on Monday May 04, 2009 @02:58PM (#27820285)

    *The TV glows to life in a moment; it's News at 11*

      In other news, journalist makes laughable prediction that two companies you've never heard of can threaten two of the largest companies in existence. Media-watchers cynically called this a blogger stunt to boost website hits, noting that sites such as Slashdot "drive a lot of hits" which, combined with Google Adsense, turns into cash for news site, Cnet.com, which hosted the article. Comments, Linda?

      News organizations cynically driving consumers to their web pages with fake news, how low can you go?

      (laughing) You tell 'em.

      For more information on this and other top stories visit our website!

    • *The TV glows to life in a moment; it's News at 11*

      John: In other news, journalist makes laughable prediction that two companies you've never heard of can threaten two of the largest companies in existence. Media-watchers cynically called this a blogger stunt to boost website hits, noting that sites such as Slashdot "drive a lot of hits" which, combined with Google Adsense, turns into cash for news site, Cnet.com, which hosted the article. Comments, Linda?

      Linda: News organizations cynically driving consumer

    • This is not about the company itself. But rather the solution. There are more Spring framework production systems then there are WebSphere Application Servers out there.
      The company may not threaten, but the software stack is already on the heels of IBM and Oracle.

  • You naysayers just don't get it (Score:5, Funny)

    by Daffy Duck ( 17350 ) on Monday May 04, 2009 @02:59PM (#27820295) Homepage
    Didn't you read the summary? These guys have long dreamed of being able to offer a solution. Plus they're totally unknown underdogs. That means they're just one montage away from coming out on top. Yay!

    • Can the montage have the girls from baywatch running? They had the best montages...

    • I've managed to obtain footage of their celebration after this acquisition:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fua0g13djo [youtube.com]

    • Here I was thinking this article was along the lines of:
      1. Take two random companies that conceivably could produce something useful if they merged.
      2. Buy them using VC.
      3. Merge them.
      4. Start a PR campaign about how the merged company could threaten IBM and MS.
      5. Sell out the merged companies to whichever giant makes the bigger offer. Obviously wait until the offers are more than you paid in step 2.
      6. Profit!

  • Riiiiight. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by whisper_jeff ( 680366 ) on Monday May 04, 2009 @03:00PM (#27820333)
    Two companies you've never heard of merge to create a unified company you won't remember in a week and present no danger what-so-ever to Microsoft nor IBM. I mean, seriously. Let's be real here.

  • Compete OSS first (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ultrabot ( 200914 )

    I'd like to see how well they compete with open source solutions first (Django, Rails), before getting excited about conquering the whole industry.

    It seem they are still dragging that Albatross "Java" in their nets, hopefully it can do a few more tricks,

    • Re:Compete OSS first (Score:5, Informative)

      by DuckDodgers ( 541817 ) <keeper_of_the_wolf@noSpam.yahoo.com> on Monday May 04, 2009 @03:10PM (#27820469)
      Spring is already open source. It's a very widely used Java web application framework - possibly the king of that particular hill. That's why it's used in hundreds of companies, as the article states.

      I'm also sure it's pretty fast in terms of performance.

      The proprietary piece here is Hyperic, not Spring.

      But you and the other post-writers are right, it's still a long way from being noteworthy to IBM or Microsoft. Too many big companies insist on proprietary software from big name vendors, regardless of the technical or financial merits of cheaper competition (open source or otherwise).

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by glwtta ( 532858 )
        It's a very widely used Java web application framework

        Uh, that's not exactly right - Spring is primarily an IoC container and AOP framework, and a whole bunch of (mostly unrelated) frameworks built on top of those. SpringMVC/WebFlow is one of those components, probably one of the less successful ones at that, as it's not obviously better than its competitors (not necessarily worse, just not better - most modern MVC web frameworks are nigh-identical at this point).
        • Thanks for the correction. We use ye olde Struts 1.x (an older Java web application framework) and I hadn't realized Spring MVC/WebFlow is not often used with the rest of Spring.

          I wouldn't say all of the MVC frameworks are identical. The fundamental concept of MVC doesn't change, but trying building a site from start to finish with Struts 1.x (which REALLY shows its age these days) and many of the newer alternatives, and the differences pop up early and often.
      • However, Spring has already found itself into a really big bunch of corporations. Spring knowledge is the most sought after Java skill out there.

    • I'd like to see how well they compete with open source solutions first (Django, Rails)

      The Spring framework is way more sophisticated than Django or Rails. It also scales without the headaches involved with Rails, and isn't web specific like Django. Comparing Spring to Django or Rails is like comparing PostgreSQL to MS Access. Yes, the latter will get you the ability to do something simple in a hurry, but it has limited features and wont scale. As for Java being an albatross, how easily are things like uni

  • ...even I know that SpringSource is behind the Spring Framework which is one of the most popular Java Enterprise Frameworks in use today. It's not like they aren't already in the market. This aquisition just allows SpringSource to have an end to end solution. Most of the comments so far are completely devoid of any knowledge on the subject whatsoever. A quick read through the article and a google search for SpringSource would be enough to enlighten people why this is important. Unfortunately that is to

    • Re:I'm not a java developer but... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by rjstanford ( 69735 ) on Monday May 04, 2009 @03:11PM (#27820481) Homepage Journal

      Funny, I am a Java developer (and one who works on fairly new web framework code, to boot). I know about Spring, although I don't use it. I had no idea that SpringSource was the company pushing it. I have a hard time imagining that Hyperic's offering was the one thing stopping major enterprises from using them, also...

      A quick read through the article and a google search for SpringSource would be enough to enlighten people why this is important. Unfortunately that is too much to ask from most slashdotters.

      Wasn't that supposed to be the entire point of the summary?

      • Funny, I am a Java developer (and one who works on fairly new web framework code, to boot). I know about Spring, although I don't use it. I had no idea that SpringSource was the company pushing it. I have a hard time imagining that Hyperic's offering was the one thing stopping major enterprises from using them, also...

        There is nothing stoping major enterprises from using the Spring Framework. They already are. Hyperic has had a relationship with SpringSource for a while now. This just allows them to cont

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by syousef ( 465911 )

      A quick read through the article and a google search for SpringSource would be enough to enlighten people why this is important.

      I think that's the point. I use Spring at work so I know what it is, but I don't have to tell people to google IBM or Microsoft. Is this a good thing? Does it offer more choice to a developer? Perhaps. Suggesting that they're some major threat is more than a little over the top. I won't be giving that blogger my page views.

      • Suggesting that they're some major threat is more than a little over the top.

        No it isn't. They are already one of the most common, if not the most common, java enterprise frameworks in use today.

        • Suggesting that they're some major threat is more than a little over the top.

          No it isn't. They are already one of the most common, if not the most common, java enterprise frameworks in use today.

          Commonly used != profitable threat

          e.g. Ubuntu

          • Commonly used != profitable threat

            e.g. Ubuntu

            Ubuntu is used on less than 1% of desktops. The spring framework is used in something like 50% of enterprises that use a java application framework. Your analogy is not even remotely useful.

            • Commonly used != profitable threat

              e.g. Ubuntu

              Ubuntu is used on less than 1% of desktops. The spring framework is used in something like 50% of enterprises that use a java application framework.

              And how is that a threat to Microsoft?

              • And how is that a threat to Microsoft

                If you don't know then maybe you shouldn't be commenting in this thread.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Burkin ( 1534829 )

          No it isn't. They are already one of the most common, if not the most common, java enterprise frameworks in use today.

          Astroturf much?

          • Astroturf much?

            No but I can read. You should try it sometime, it's a skill that can go a long way. I don't even develop java applications nevermind have anything to do with SpringSource. If you don't believe me about how prevalent Spring is then just look up some Java job listings.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Burkin ( 1534829 )
              Considering how defensive you get over this company in the 5 posts you've made in this thread I doubt it.

              • There IS a point at which unbridled paranoia is unhealthy.

              • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

                by Xabraxas ( 654195 )

                Considering how defensive you get over this company in the 5 posts you've made in this thread I doubt it.

                I'm not getting defensive about SpringSource. I just hate when all the comments are by people making definitive statements about things they know jack about. The attitude "I never heard of it so it must be nothing" is just retarded. One comment even called it vaporware! This stuff is already out there. SpringSource just bought a component already used by them so they could control the whole end-to

      • I have a java project, which basically exposes web-services (jax-ws) and it's built on java 1.5+ standard. I considered Spring when I was starting the project a couple years ago. However, I thought that they didn't offer much (for me) with regards to web services and I thought that the point of Spring was to get away from EJBs, which as of java 1.5 are vastly simpler and lighter weight.

        So, I've basically been under the impression that Spring would die either as java dies, or as java integrates much of its

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by julesh ( 229690 )

          I have a java project, which basically exposes web-services (jax-ws) and it's built on java 1.5+ standard. I considered Spring when I was starting the project a couple years ago. However, I thought that they didn't offer much (for me) with regards to web services and I thought that the point of Spring was to get away from EJBs, which as of java 1.5 are vastly simpler and lighter weight.

          So, I've basically been under the impression that Spring would die either as java dies, or as java integrates much of its f

  • The really significant costs to enterprises, who do half their development in Java (source: Aberdeen Group market research), is not in Java development. There are plenty of developers. No, the costs are in Java execution. Java's garbage collection hiccups, for example, make it difficult to meet response time SLA's as volumes scale.

    Azul Systems is a company that specializes in accelerating Java workloads on Sun, IBM, and X86 machines. I see Azul as being at least as important to a "complete" Java soluti

  • Blah (Score:1, Troll)

    by Tarlus ( 1000874 )
    Looked interesting till I read 'Java'.

    • no worries you can use it with dot net [springframework.net] too! ;-)

      Honestly though, spring is cool stuff, try it out.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by julesh ( 229690 )

      Looked interesting till I read 'Java'.

      So, clearly, having decided that this wasn't a story you were interested in, you ignored it, didn't read any further, and didn't post in the comments thread.

      Or at least, that's what most of the rest of us would have done. Why do you feel the need to complain when /. posts a story on a topic you don't care about?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Tarlus ( 1000874 )

        Why do you feel the need to complain when /. posts a story on a topic you don't care about?

        But that wasn't a complaint. It was a simple expression of my thought and opinion. Isn't that what Slashdot's comment system is for?

        Mod me a troll and try to impose netiquette on me as much as you like, but the straight and simple fact is that I am not a fan of Java nor its underlying technologies and was therefore disappointed by what I had hoped for Hyperic to be. I'm not (nor will I be) arguing about Java nor about how the Slashdot community expects me to behave.

  • ...but how much revenue does SpringSource actually get out of it? If it's like a bunch of other open source tools, there's a very small percentage of customers that make the leap from "user" to "paying user".

    • SpringSource make their money out of consultancy, training and support. My company doesn't even use Spring (we use an in house Spring-like framework which is based on Rod Johnson's early code that became Spring), but we have bought training on things like Tomcat from SpringSource as they employ at least one of the Tomcat maintainers. They also employ at least one major Apache HTTPD maintainer, which makes sense as people often proxy their web applications from Apache. Many of the major financial companies i

  • Wrong spelling... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jah-Wren Ryel ( 80510 ) on Monday May 04, 2009 @03:23PM (#27820649)

    It sounds like Spring Source has really acquired lots of Hyperbole.

  • What I haven't been able to make out of either of the company's website's, is whether they offer 'only' a servlet engine like Tomcat, or a full J2EE Application Server ? It seems to me like they would need at least a full J2EE Application Server like Geronimo to make any sort of threat ?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by julesh ( 229690 )

      What I haven't been able to make out of either of the company's website's, is whether they offer 'only' a servlet engine like Tomcat, or a full J2EE Application Server ? It seems to me like they would need at least a full J2EE Application Server like Geronimo to make any sort of threat ?

      Neither. SpringSource's main product is Spring Framework, which is a library designed to assist with Java enterprise programming and coexists with either a servlet engine or an app server (but is designed to reduce the need

  • Shill~~~~ S H I L L

    Companies nobody has heard of aren't competition for IBM/MS. This isn't revolutionary. Sounds like a company head or a shill.

  • Hyperic (Score:4, Informative)

    by Zarquil ( 187770 ) on Monday May 04, 2009 @03:42PM (#27820933)

    Hyperic is a GPLed monitoring solution sorta akin to Nagios. I use it to give me my monitoring for my Linux & Windows servers, but also it runs queries against our data vendor's database to ensure that the database is responsive.

    I inherited it, which was the first time I ran across it, but after using it I'm a big convert. I recommend taking a serious look at it.

    As to the takeover, well, I doubt it'll affect me one way or the other.

    • Meh. Slow, annoying to configure and navigate. Slow.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Zarquil ( 187770 )

        Slow. It's Java based, I didn't expect it to be lightning fast. Really bloody easy to add in and configure modules. Pathetically simple to add in a new server to monitor. Navigation takes a while to adapt to.

        Great for me on my servers with head space. It's not for everyone and it wasn't my first choice, but after I used it a bit I liked it a lot.

        If you've evaluated it and found it lacking, good for you. Tell me what you prefer and I'll look at it. If you're one of the thousands of drones babbling, "W

  • What the flipping fuck is Hyperic? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by glwtta ( 532858 ) on Monday May 04, 2009 @03:45PM (#27820983) Homepage
    Really, how hard is it to throw in a "monitoring app" somewhere along with all the hyperbole, so people can actually tell if they give a damn?

    Yeah, yeah, this is (- A billion, Redundant), but where's the sorely needed (-1, Terrible summary)?

  • Yay for Java apps becoming even more over-engineered than they already are. What really cracks me up is that Spring is presented as a "lightweight" solution, or indeed a solution that solves significant problems. I will take a hand-coded factory over an XML configuration file, so I can step right into it in the debugger without any problems. I will pass around a context object to avoid using AOP and be able to debug my apps. Some parts of Spring are nice, but people seem to use the worst ones. And as a res

  • ... build, run and manage business applications". ...

    I'm sorry I didn't read any further. And I was to fast in closing the tabs to copy/paste the URLs. Go look yourself if you're really interested.

  • Hyperic => Hyperbolic

  • Yeah, and Rational Software [wikipedia.org] used to be a separate company too. Does anyone really think SpringSource will be a threat for any significant length of time?

  • To SpringSource (Score:3, Funny)

    by tekiegreg ( 674773 ) * <tekieg1-slashdot@yahoo.com> on Monday May 04, 2009 @05:09PM (#27822313) Homepage Journal
    Dear whatever no name company I've never heard of, heed my piece of advice:

    Be careful how you meddle in the affairs of extraterrestrial races you don't understand well, for your brain is highly assimilatable.

    Sincerely:



    Greg of Microsoft Borg, Drone in Unimatrix 22 subjunction 12

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