Sun Microsystems has announced the immediate availability and support of the Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server version 3 Prelude, a lightweight Web application server that is based on a modular OSGi architecture. Sun is also providing a preview of features that will be available in the upcoming Java Platform Enterprise Edition 6.

GlassFish is one of the leading open source application servers in the industry today with more than 14 million downloads since its first release in May 2005, more than 225,000 registrations in 2008 and hundreds of production deployments around the globe. With features such as: ease of installation and management, modularity and extensibility and enhanced JRuby support, GlassFish Enterprise Server v3 Prelude allows developers to easily scale their projects from small Web-tier deployments to large-scale mission critical architectures, simplify complex development and production tasks and increase productivity.

"GlassFish Enterprise Server v3 Prelude is a great example of the innovations that a dynamic, open source community can create as well as an interesting view into the future of Web application development and production environments," said Karen Tegan Padir, vice president of engineering, Software Infrastructure, Sun Microsystems. "This release, which is fully supported by Sun and targeted at Web-tier production environments, will be the basis for the GlassFish Enterprise Server v3 -- a complete application server based on the OSGi standard and the upcoming Java EE 6 platform."

Customers will benefit from GlassFish Enterprise Server v3 Prelude's more efficient and simplified development and management environments. The new release delivers major productivity features such as:

• Java EE 6 Preview Features - Offers access to the latest functionality in the upcoming Java EE 6 platform, such as: EJB 3.1 Lite and Java Server Faces 2.0. In addition, JAX-RS 1.0 is fully supported for building RESTful Web Services. Users can receive add-ons when new features become available.
• Production Support for Lightweight Web Tier - Provides a lightweight Web-tier deployment platform with full production support. In addition, users can match GlassFish Enterprise Server v3 Prelude in the Web tier with GlassFish Enterprise Server v2 in the application tier for an enterprise-wide architecture.
• Dynamic Language Support with Reliable Performance - Allows users to run development languages like Java, Groovy on Grails and JRuby on Rails at the same time without sacrificing performance. Also, JRuby applications can run without the Java technology-based servlet container, improving productivity by eliminating the need to bundle and deploy JRuby applications as Web archive.
• Easy-to-use Administration Console - Offers a simple user interface with point-and-click configuration, application deployment and installation of additional components from the update center. Also, a feature-parity command line interface (CLI) is also available for automated tasks.
• Rapid Deployment Technology - Simplifies the Web development cycle of Java-based applications to edit code, save and immediately refresh browser with no loss of application state. Developers can expect to be more productive when GlassFish Enterprise Server v3 Prelude is combined with the upcoming release of NetBeans(TM) Integrated Development Environment (IDE) 6.5.