Associated Newspapers Keeps Websites Competitive with SpringSource tc Server

PALO ALTO, Calif.,—January 26, 2010 – SpringSource, a division of VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) and the leader in Java application infrastructure and management, today announced that Associated Newspapers (ANL), one of the UK’s largest publishers of national newspapers and consumer websites, has switched from using Oracle WebLogic to SpringSource tc Server™ and reduced application deployment times from hours to minutes. SpringSource tc Server is an enterprise version of Apache Tomcat, the world’s most widely used Java application server. SpringSource tc Server is also available in a Developer Edition, which gives developers deep visibility and relevant information for debugging and improving the performance of their Spring applications.

The Digital Services Division (DSD) of Associated Newspapers provides all online development and infrastructure services for the company’s online portfolio of newspaper websites. This portfolio includes the UK’s largest online newspaper website, The Daily Mail, as well as Evening Standard, This is Money, Metro and more than 150 regional sites. Associated Newspapers’ goal is to deliver websites that offer a satisfying and engaging experience for users and commercial benefits to advertisers. DSD’s challenge was in its ability to turnaround feature releases and new websites without disrupting high website availability.

Prior to using SpringSource tc Server, Associated Newspaper’s DSD’s division experienced multiple challenges. For example, developers invested too much time doing build and releases during their two-week release cycles. To solve these challenges, DSD switched all applications to SpringSource tc Server for development, testing, staging and production environments. SpringSource tc Sever allowed DSD to rapidly turnaround production fixes and greatly improve server performance.

“Prior to our use of SpringSource tc Server, our developers could waste up to three hours on start-up every time they built and deployed a new application,” recalls Shaun Perkinson, head of development at Associated Newspapers. “It became a time-consuming and costly process.”

SpringSource tc Server delivers the following business results to Associated Newspapers:

•    Fast Testing and Live Developments – Developers can spend a couple minutes on test and live deployments on SpringSource tc Server; where they used to take up to two hours on WebLogic. This allows developers to concentrate on their development tasks.
•    Website High Availability – SpringSource tc Server enables the DSD team to solve issues before they become problems, enabling critical high availability from the company’s many websites. If a server needs to be stopped and restarted, it can be done in less than two minutes.
•    Reduced Server Costs – While using WebLogic, Associated Newspapers was planning to purchase a fourth and fifth server to handle the load. SpringSource tc Server can handle the same load on three servers, saving the company money on new hardware.
•    More Features – Using SpringSource tc Server, development teams are able to deliver more features to market because they are spending more time developing and less time waiting for WebLogic to start up new deployments.
•    Proactive Problem Solving – SpringSource tc Server provides real-time information to developers, so the team can constantly monitor the health of the server, see trends and analyze issues.
•    World-Class Support and Service – SpringSource employs the leading committers to Apache Tomcat, which enables the support organization to resolve small issues in minutes. The SpringSource support team helped the DSD make a live switch from WebLogic to SpringSource tc Server, resolving many issues within minutes.

“SpringSource tc Server is an ideal lean platform for developers to increase productivity and reduce application deployment time,” said Shaun Connolly, vice president of product management for the SpringSource division of VMware. “By running Spring and enterprise Java web applications on SpringSource tc Server, developers can decrease complexity and dramatically cut the costs associated with traditional, often bloated Java EE application servers.”

To learn more about Associated Newspapers migration to SpringSource tc Server, attend the upcoming free SpringSource webinar being held on Thursday, February 4, 2010 at  2:00 pm GMT/3:00 pm CET and entitled “Associated Newspapers: SpringSource tc Server Case Study Tackling the Challenges of Application Development Time and Server Availability.”

To register.

About SpringSource
SpringSource, a division of VMware, Inc., (NYSE: VMW) and the leader in Java application infrastructure and management, provides a complete suite of software products that accelerate the entire build, run, manage enterprise Java application lifecycle. SpringSource employs the open source leaders who created and drive innovation for Spring, the de facto standard programming model for enterprise Java applications. SpringSource also employs the Java and Web thought leaders within the Apache Tomcat, Apache HTTP Server, Hyperic, Groovy and Grails open source communities. Nearly half of the Global 2000, including many of the world’s leading retail, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, technology and public sector clients are SpringSource customers. For more information visit: www.springsource.com.

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