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Oh the Places You'll Go!

Posted on July 3rd, 2012 by Rod Johnson in Business, Cloud Computing, Data Access, Enterprise Integration, Java, Open Source, Spring, SpringSource.

Rod Johnson

The last ten years has been an exciting and challenging journey for me and I’m very proud of the technology and community that my SpringSource cofounders and I fostered. However, there always comes a time to make a choice about the places you’ll go, and it’s time for me to leave VMware and pursue other interests. I wish VMware and my colleagues continued success, and know that Spring will continue to thrive.

Technology

Spring was created to simplify enterprise Java development, and has succeeded in that goal. The Spring community continues to grow, Spring is more widely adopted than ever and Spring has become the dominant programming model for enterprise Java.

With its mission of simplification in mind, Spring has evolved to address problems and integrate with systems well beyond the scope of the original Spring Framework. That evolution continues today with Spring created technology at the forefront of enterprise development: Spring for Apache Hadoop and Spring Integration help with Big Data distributed processing problems; Spring Data simplifies access to NoSQL and distributed datastores; Spring Social and Spring Mobile let developers build the critical services to mobilize enterprise applications. While the Spring Framework started during the heyday of the traditional monolithic enterprise Java application server, today’s world is very different: dominated by lightweight runtimes and cloud platforms where Spring is still the best programming choice. The Spring team is amazing and will continue to stay at the forefront of enterprise development, including addressing the problems of enterprise Big Data, the rise of multiple client platforms and around cloud computing.

Spring will continue to be driven forward by the Spring project leads, whom you’ve all come to know and trust over the past several years. Their experience, deep technical knowledge and innovative thinking will continue to guide Spring’s development. I look forward to seeing what they’ll create for the next decade, in partnership with their communities.

A Great Community

Community is central to all open source technologies. A profound thank you to all of you who embraced and advocated and contributed to Spring and helped change the landscape of enterprise Java for the better. There’s nothing like open source for creating opportunities to collaborate with talented folk who could never have come together otherwise.

I’ve met many of you at SpringOne and other conferences over the years and it has always been great fun to share a drink and talk about the technology we care about. Your support and feedback has helped Spring win in the marketplace of ideas and made Java more enjoyable to work in. I look forward to continuing those conversations in the future.

SpringSource

I’m proud to have built a company that created jobs and opportunity for people across many countries, and delivered value to its community and customers. As SpringSource built out its technology portfolio beyond Spring, we were able to bring that mission of simplification to runtime and management, as well as application architecture. The products and technology SpringSource created are now key to VMware’s cloud strategy, and play an increasingly important role in the IT infrastructure of many customers.

I want to thank my cofounders, who shared the vision and committed so much of their life to going on this journey together, enduring the risks and rollercoaster ride of a startup; and the many outstanding employees who joined over the years. It’s been great working with you, and many of you have become good friends.

A Personal Note

package org.springframework.beans.factory;

/**
 *
 * @author Rod Johnson
 * @author Juergen Hoeller
 * @since 13 April 2001
 */
public interface BeanFactory {

The personal side is important. Spring and SpringSource has occupied more than 10 years of my life. From developing the core architectural ideas in 2001, publishing Expert 1:1 J2EE Design and Development in 2002, founding the Spring Framework open source project in 2003, cofounding SpringSource in 2004, raising funding and relocating to the Bay Area in 2007, building out the company, joining forces with VMware in 2009 and helping my group to succeed within a larger organization, it’s been a wild and engrossing ride that I could never have imagined when I wrote the first lines of BeanFactory code in my study in London in 2001.

Over those years, my role has changed. I’ve enjoyed becoming more involved in the business side of technology, and working with and learning from a great group of investors, executives and business colleagues.

Ten years is a long time. I’m ready for some different challenges. I’ll always be part of the Spring community, and will continue to contribute ideas. And like any parent that has helped raise a child to maturity, I am proud and excited to see the new places where Spring will go.

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90 responses

  1. Sacha Labourey says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 9:07 am

    Rod,

    While we've been mostly competing during my JBoss days, this was a fun ride.

    Congrats for the achievement and enjoy your new life!

    Onward,

    Sacha

  2. Lars Vogel says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 9:16 am

    Good luck and thank you for the creation of the fantastic Spring framework which changed the web world.

  3. Shifei Luo says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 9:33 am

    Rod, You and your team are great!

    Thank you!

  4. Mike Milinkovich says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 9:37 am

    Rod,

    Best wishes for the future!

  5. Hui Chen says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 9:56 am

    Thanks for creating an excellent and elegant framework. Can't imagine what my programming life could have been without Spring framework!

    Best wishes to your new adventure!

    Hui

  6. Martijn Verburg says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 10:05 am

    Thanks for improving the ecosystem Rod! Best of luck with the roads yet to travel :-)

  7. Saurabh Asthana says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 10:27 am

    Thanks Rod for the wonderful framework!!
    Best wishes for the future

  8. Mark Little says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 11:42 am

    Rod, congratulations and enjoy your new life!

  9. Michal Vrtiak says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 11:42 am

    Good luck Rod and BIG thanx for bringing Spring to us!

  10. Bill Burke says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 11:46 am

    Good luck Rod. I really respect what you built even and accomplished over the years.

  11. Adrian Dozsa says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    Thanks for Spring. It really makes all the difference.
    All the best of luck in your future endeavor.

  12. Steven Schuurman says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 12:16 pm

    All the best in whatever life might throw your way. Few things in my career I enjoyed more than working with you.

    Your friend and SpringSource cofounder.
    Steven

  13. Luciano Molinari says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 1:06 pm

    Thank you for everything you've helped to build!
    Good luck.

  14. Shaun Connolly says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 1:16 pm

    Rod,

    It was a privilege to have worked with you at SpringSource and VMware.
    You're a great business-savvy technologist and a class act!

    All the best!

    Shaun Connolly

  15. Mik Kersten says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 2:18 pm

    The simplification of the enterprise programming model that you drove will be permanent. That's quite a dent to have made on the way that software is built, both in terms of what Spring delivered, and in the way that it's now being emulated by other platforms. I always look back fondly on the projects that we worked on together over the past six years with the goal of fully integrating the Spring dev's experience, from desktop IDE to deployment destination. Some of the ideas that we brainstormed while driving too fast will still take years to properly unfold and make their impact…

    Mik

    –
    Dr. Mik Kersten
    Tasktop CEO, Mylyn Lead, http://twitter.com/mik_kersten

  16. Charlie Purdom says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 2:38 pm

    Rod,

    It was a pleasure working with you at SpringSource and VMware.

    I wish you all the best moving forward.

    Charlie Purdom
    Director of Corporate Communications
    Hortonworks

  17. Ramesh Balasubramanian says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 3:41 pm

    Thanks for providing the community with a great framework. Best wishes for your next endeavor.

  18. Colin Sampaleanu says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 4:55 pm

    Rod,

    I feel privileged to have been part of that amazing, crazy ride with you. Spring was more than a set of technologies when it came on the scene, it was a fresh way of thinking that fundamentally changed the landscape of enterprise development for the better. After all these years, that spirit continues to live today in evolved form.

    Best of luck wherever the road takes you.

    Colin

  19. John Furrier says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 5:53 pm

    Best of success Rod. Here is some historic video at VMworld 2010 in SF during the Season 1 Prototype of theCUBE our ESPN of Tech on SiliconANGLE.tv… we'll be at vmworld 2012 again for the 3rd straight year.

    http://siliconangle.com/blog/2012/07/03/the-father-of-springsource-rod-johnson-quits-vmware/

  20. Jose Diaz says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 6:16 pm

    Thanks Rod. My life in Java is much easier thanks to SpringSource.

    My most sincere thanks.

    Joe

  21. Peter Colligan says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 7:08 pm

    Thank you for your time and efforts. Spring helped me understand that JEE and OO could co-exist and that one hammer is not for every nail.

  22. Paul Dotsenko says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 7:26 pm

    Thanks Rod for the hard work on Spring, I hope you enjoy whatever you do next. I feel fortunate to have used Spring in my daily work for most of the last 7 years. My best wishes to you sir!

  23. Grzegorz Grzybek says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 9:44 pm

    Thank you very much for the decision to share your vision, first in The Book then in Spring Framework. This vision has changed Java's destination. Thanks for everything that was created around simple concept of BeanFactory…

    Grzegorz Grzybek

  24. Abani says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 10:23 pm

    Thank you very much for giving us a rock solid framework.

  25. Mint says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 10:46 pm

    Rod,

    Your spring concept and framework just simply ease of use and make my dev life better. This is awesome framework of all time.

    Best of luck wherever you're heading

    Mint

  26. YongEun says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 11:13 pm

    Thanks Rod.

  27. Asankha Perera says:

    Added on July 3rd, 2012 at 11:18 pm

    Thanks for a really great framework we've all enjoyed working with!

    Best wishes for your future endeavors!

    asankha

  28. Waqas Sadiq says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 12:08 am

    Thank your for your contribution to a solution which made my life easy as a Java Developer. Best of luck for everything.

  29. Nils says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 12:44 am

    Thank you Rody for creating one of the best things in todays enterprise IT ecosystem.

    Good luck with what ever is comming next for you.

  30. William says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 2:06 am

    Thank you, sir. You changed the Java community with an awesome piece of software. Nowadays, with tools like Spring Roo, developing a J2EE application is no longer a time consuming task. This for sure can't be done by using just the stuff from the Sun/Oracle.

    Good luck and god bless.

  31. Sariq Shaikh says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 2:18 am

    Thanks rod for your wonderful contribution towards Java programming. Of course you have made lots of java developer's life easy.

    Best of luck for your future endeavors.

  32. tesyoose ekleria says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 2:49 am

    Offering was greeted with foreigners because points are sorry.

    I want to thank you for helping to ease the development of Java could.
    Please always stay healthy.

  33. Siva says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 3:00 am

    Hi Rod,
    As a Java developer you made my life easy with your wonderful Spring framework.

    All the best for your next steps :-)

  34. Julio CPA says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 3:53 am

    Rod, thanks for be an inspiration. Good luck in your new path.

  35. Dimitri Hautot says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 4:36 am

    Rod,

    You (r team) changed an industry and my professional life; both for the best.

    Many thanks, good luck and take care!

  36. Miloskov Otengi says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 5:00 am

    Rod,

    Maybe you don't remember me but on TSS we had good discussions about Spring Framework in the time before SpringSource went with VMware but I really want to Thank You for the best framework and great work you did.

    Thanks to Spring I have a job and a life!.

  37. Paddy says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 5:37 am

    Rod
    Thanks for developing the Spring Framework, we had a motto at work. "In Rod we trust".
    Good luck in your next challenge.
    Now must go find out what is this BeanFactory chat is all about. :-)

  38. Martin Flower says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 6:03 am

    Rod, thank you that I'm not working with Entity Beans.

    /Martin

  39. anjan bacchu says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 6:24 am

    Rod,

    thanks for spring. it has made life easier for developers.

    Good luck for the future.

    BR,
    ~A

  40. Frederic Conrotte says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 1:38 pm

    Rod

    Few other books than your Expert 1:1 J2EE Design and Development book had so much influence on the way the Java industry evolved and developers designed their applications in the last 10 years.

    Needless to say that Spring is one of the most beautifully designed frameworks around.

    Thank you so much for making my daily work simpler !

  41. Mark Nutall says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 2:37 pm

    Rod, thx for creating something that allowed me to eliminate a lot of my code and do things in a much better way (i.e. remoting). Good luck on what comes next.

  42. songho says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 7:20 pm

    Thanks Rod.

  43. Shailendra kumar says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 10:36 pm

    Thanks for your immense contribution and vision for Java enterprise community. All the best !

  44. TaeHee Kim says:

    Added on July 4th, 2012 at 11:24 pm

    Thanks Rod.
    Good luck!

  45. Lou Sacco says:

    Added on July 5th, 2012 at 1:41 am

    Rod – Thanks for all your contributions over the years. I enjoyed your framework, your book and finally meeting you in person at Spring One. Good luck in all your future endeavors!

  46. Marcos Ortiz says:

    Added on July 5th, 2012 at 5:36 am

    Rod, thanks a lot for your vision and mission with Spring, my life is easier thanks to your work with your team at SpringSource. Best wishes and good luck in your new life.

  47. Alef Arendsen says:

    Added on July 5th, 2012 at 7:46 am

    Rod,

    Great memories of taking the DLR to Greenwhich in the early days and drinking Hoegaarden in de local pub. Even better memories of the exciting plans we developed and realized with SpringSource.

    But quite possibly one of the best memories was in the winter garden in the Krasnapolsky hotel in Amsterdam you playing Chopin in the piano.

    Such multi-talented people are hard to find. I was great working with you!

    Good luck on your next endeavors.

    Cheers,
    Alef

  48. Eric Knipp says:

    Added on July 5th, 2012 at 9:30 am

    Rod,

    Java programmers everywhere owe you a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. All the best,

    Eric

  49. Andrew Lee says:

    Added on July 5th, 2012 at 11:33 am

    Rod,
    It was nice to be connected to one chapter of the SpringSource story. Please keep in touch.
    Best,
    Andrew

  50. martin.ou says:

    Added on July 5th, 2012 at 11:49 pm

    Rod, You and your team are great!

    Thank you!

  51. Sandro Xu says:

    Added on July 6th, 2012 at 5:01 am

    Good Luck. Thank you for your idea of Spring and made it to be true.

  52. siva says:

    Added on July 6th, 2012 at 5:38 am

    You did very good job Rod, wish you all the best for your future projects

  53. Kundan Verma says:

    Added on July 6th, 2012 at 6:12 am

    All the Best, I am sure you will ROAR again with something new which will change the near future, the way way spring did in past.

  54. Junwoo Jeong says:

    Added on July 6th, 2012 at 3:02 pm

    Thanks rod for the great work on Spring.
    Best wishes for the future.

  55. alex says:

    Added on July 6th, 2012 at 4:43 pm

    Thanks Rod for all you didwith Spring.
    Not only it saved my day more than once, but it is a very inspiring piece

  56. Alan J says:

    Added on July 8th, 2012 at 12:33 pm

    Going to join Typesafe/Scala?

  57. Alain Brazeau says:

    Added on July 9th, 2012 at 6:39 am

    Hi Rod,

    Several years ago, you gave a presentation entitled 'Are we there yet?'. I take your recent announcement as a sure sign that we now are.

    Thanks for creating a framework that is such a pleasure to use. Most of all, thanks for helping put the OO in Enterprise Java!

    Regards,

    Alain

    (P.S.: On more than one occasion, I have used you as an example when defending the relevance of my Music degree. :) )

  58. Vajira W says:

    Added on July 10th, 2012 at 12:49 am

    Good Luck and Thanks for spring frame work Rod,
    You have redefined the java enterprise development, which lead to rethink of jee developments,

    Regards,

    Vajira

  59. Shalom Deitch says:

    Added on July 10th, 2012 at 11:19 pm

    Just another user saying thanks.
    Wishing you a lot of success.
    I hope that what you built will continue to grow in a way that both you and your users are happy with.

  60. Simone says:

    Added on July 11th, 2012 at 6:05 am

    JEE without ROD…too sad.

  61. Mark says:

    Added on July 11th, 2012 at 8:01 am

    Goodluck Rod in your new endeavors. We appreciate all the efforts and vision you've shared in making Java a "better place to live with". You had indeed changed the world!

    The community will always value your wisdom. Thanks again.

  62. Nikita Tovstoles says:

    Added on July 11th, 2012 at 10:15 am

    Thank you, Rod. Both your book, and Spring, are great contributions to our industry. Really curious as to what you'll choose to do next.

  63. Alex Handy says:

    Added on July 11th, 2012 at 11:20 am

    I'll never have a chance to hear you play piano now! I assume you're heading back down under, never to be seen state-side again.

    It was fun, Rud! Enjoy!

  64. Prabhu Gurunathan says:

    Added on July 11th, 2012 at 10:13 pm

    Rod,
    Thanks for given the wonderfull , amazing framework for to Java world. All the best for your endless life

  65. Vinod says:

    Added on July 12th, 2012 at 9:21 am

    Rod,
    Thanks for giving such an elegant framework to the Java community and all your inspiring work in the computing field so far.

    I am sure we will continue to see such amazing contributions from you in future, as there is still so much more to learn from your vision and ideas.

    Thanks again and wish you good-luck for the future.

  66. Joel on Software says:

    Added on July 13th, 2012 at 6:39 pm

    Spring was succesful because it was a simpler alternative than JavaEE in its time (EJBs and the rest of big elephants). However, Spring has became more complex with pass of the years and the versions…

    http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.219431

  67. Ben You says:

    Added on July 13th, 2012 at 7:48 pm

    Good luck.
    Thank you.

  68. Bala Krishna says:

    Added on July 14th, 2012 at 12:33 am

    Thanks rod for the great work on Spring Framework.
    All the best for future endeavors.

  69. Thomas P. Fuller says:

    Added on July 14th, 2012 at 2:50 am

    Rod,

    Thanks for making my job much easier and best of luck with your future endeavours.

    Tom

  70. Adeyemo A. Alex says:

    Added on July 15th, 2012 at 2:49 am

    Thanks for the paradigm shift in Java world. With Spring and other SpringSource projects on can easily tackle most challenges in modern software development today.
    Good luck in your future endeavors.

    Alex

  71. faisal says:

    Added on July 15th, 2012 at 10:41 am

    thanks for your effort and good luck with your future life.

  72. Anand Mohan says:

    Added on July 16th, 2012 at 5:06 am

    Thank you Rod for building such a robust and reliable framework in java. We wish you all the luck in the next journey of your life.
    Thanks again.

  73. Mehdi Zehtaban says:

    Added on July 16th, 2012 at 10:25 pm

    I think Rod is going to write a new chapter of his life.
    Thank you Rod for closing previous chapter very well.

  74. Sridhar says:

    Added on July 17th, 2012 at 10:11 am

    Rod,

    Thanks for all that you have done.
    Best wishes for your future endeavor.

    Sridhar

  75. Xipe says:

    Added on July 19th, 2012 at 8:44 am

    Thank you, Rod! Spring framework is wonderfully engineered!

  76. Srinath says:

    Added on July 19th, 2012 at 10:59 am

    Rod,
    Thanks for presenting this Framework to the World, it made life easier for lot of Java Devs all around the world. And All the best in your future endeavors.

    Srinath

  77. Willian Oki says:

    Added on July 20th, 2012 at 8:46 am

    Hi Rod,

    first of all, thank you very very much for the great work! It's not only the Spring Framework. IMHO and quoting Adeyemo A. Alex, you've done "paradigm shift in Java world". You've taken it up to a fresh new level!

    Good luck! Keep up the terrific work!

    Willian

  78. Rajitha says:

    Added on July 22nd, 2012 at 10:36 pm

    Thank you very much for your great contribution to JEE world. It simplifies the Enterprise Application Development stack.

    All the very best for your future !!

    Rajitha.

  79. Ananth Gorantla says:

    Added on July 26th, 2012 at 12:08 pm

    Hi Rod,
    What I like most about spring is that it enhances enterprise Java development instead of replacing it…Thanks for your contributions

    Ananth

  80. Ananth Gorantla says:

    Added on July 26th, 2012 at 12:24 pm

    Hi Rod,
    What I like most about spring is that it promotes enhancement of enterprise Java development instead of replacing it…Thanks for your contributions….Good Luck

    Ananth

  81. jjjjj says:

    Added on August 1st, 2012 at 5:58 am

    Rod, there is only a few names of people I remember for doing something really remarkable. Your is one of them. Thank you for ideas and changing Java world. If you change your mind I will be happy :)

  82. rain says:

    Added on August 2nd, 2012 at 7:23 pm

    B&g

  83. Umar Ashfaq says:

    Added on August 10th, 2012 at 10:36 pm

    Thanks a lot for the amazing work, Rod. Spring has not only helped me build powerful apps with great degree of control, it has also helped me a lot refine my concepts of Object Oriented Programming and Design Patterns. All the best with your endeavors.

  84. Jack says:

    Added on August 30th, 2012 at 9:19 pm

    Thank You Rod! ~Jack

  85. mathew.luke says:

    Added on September 10th, 2012 at 9:20 am

    Wish you well. But you did the greatest harm to j2ee. Spring is an aberration. With Annotation, j2ee5 really does whatever you did and more. You did great harm by undermining our faith and expertise in the standard j2ee. It was so easy and straight. ORM is really useful but DI as replacement for jndi? Sorry. Though you hold a degree in music, you were unable to listen to the rythm of jndi lookup code!
    What a terrible mess!

  86. Mark says:

    Added on September 20th, 2012 at 2:53 am

    Rod,thanks for your great works.

  87. Yesh says:

    Added on October 27th, 2012 at 2:44 pm

    Rod – I read your book on simplifying J2EE … at first I did not understand your ideas but now see the beauty of it. Thanks for your contributions to the world of enterprise Java.

    Good luck on your next venture.

  88. Soumen Sarkar says:

    Added on December 6th, 2012 at 10:49 am

    eWeek article said it well:

    http://www.eweek.com/print/c/a/Application-Development/Spring-Creator-Rod-Johnson-Leaves-VMware-Makes-Mark-on-Java-810250/

    €œWhat Rod and SpringSource demonstrated was that open source can out-innovate standards-led approaches like the JCP,€ said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. €œIn many ways, it was Spring that helped retain Java's relevance on the server, because it arrived just in time to save Java developers from the Java EE bloatware. Our own Eclipse developer survey shows that Spring is the leading Java server framework, with more usage than either EJBs or servlets. Rod was a pioneer in creating a developer-led community-based technology for enterprise Java.€

  89. Edward says:

    Added on December 11th, 2012 at 9:43 am

    Thanks so much Rod for your amazing contribution.

  90. Giuseppe says:

    Added on February 28th, 2013 at 7:07 am

    It's a thought that I bring with me for the last years: I would like to thanks Rod for Spring; Spring has so much contribute to my professional growth and thanks to adoption of Spring I've had the time to study and catch my master in Computer Engineering.

    I will feel always grate to Rod Johnson.

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