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SpringSource Acquires Hyperic, Possibly Set to Target Microsoft and IBM

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Mon May 04, 2009 02:45 PM
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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  • 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]

      • 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:3, Informative)

        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.

      • 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#?
      • Re:Umm... (Score:5, Funny)

        by afabbro (33948) on Monday May 04 2009, @04:01PM (#27821247)
        They are also the market leader for maximizing synergy in cross-platform, dynamic object-oriented open source mindshare solutions.
      • I read the full article, jackass. Sorry to ruin your /. stereotype.

        Novel idea: asking a question to harness the collective knowledge of /. to put an article in context. I'm not familiar with either of these companies and as far as I can tell this merger is nothing more than hype. Maybe I'm missing something and someone will correct me. That's the point of the question.
        • I read the full article, jackass. Sorry to ruin your /. stereotype.

          Ah, I see your sarcasm detector is broken.

          Lighten up, Nancy. Being pissed off, paranoid, and miserable is a terrible way to go through life.

          I'd say it's highly unlikely you read the links from TFA, though, am I correct?

          FWIW, reading the links from the blog post cleared up a little bit of who the companies are, what they do, and what parts of the MS and IBM offerings they'll be competing with (frameworks).

          Also, one more note... though

        • Does "slow news day" ring a bell? How about "slashvertisement"?

          1. CNet copies some press release, maybe adding a few lines
          2. Slashdot picks it up
          3. PROFIT!

          I doubt that either IBM or Microsoft are going to be shaking in their booties about suddenly not being able to develop using spring (Apache 2 license) or java (gpl license). The hype sounds like a rerun the Borland-Inprise-Borland-WeDontKnowWhoTheFuckAreWeToday.butWeWillManageYourApplicationLifecycle hype. It doesn't mean anyone has to change anything any t

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          I read the full article, jackass. Sorry to ruin your /. stereotype.

          you must be new here. oh, wait...

  • 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) Homepage 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.

      • 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.

    • Who the hell is Hyberic?

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

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      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

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

    *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

  • 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!
  • 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.
  • 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,

    • 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)

        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).
  • ...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
    • 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

    • 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.

        • 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:3, Informative)

                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

  • ...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".

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

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

  • 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.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        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

  • 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)?
  • 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
    • Seam does appear to be much nicer than Spring, with state management och avoidance of XML configuration, etc. But what does Guice bring to the table?
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      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?