Today sees the arrival of JRuby on Engine Yard Cloud, positioned as a new combination of Java "performance" and Ruby "agility" for the Engine Yard PaaS. As readers know, JRuby is a Java implementation of the Ruby programming language, which has gained some popularity as an open-source package to enable Ruby applications to run on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

"We are thrilled to announce that customers can now use JRuby in Engine Yard Cloud and leverage the power of Java on the Engine Yard platform," said Dr. Nic Williams, VP of technology at Engine Yard. "This is huge in that it is the first truly threaded implementation of Ruby to have full production support. Customers can get the performance benefits of real concurrency in an enterprise-grade environment. Engine Yard is the first platform to make available all stable, production-ready Ruby implementations, including JRuby, MRI, and Rubinius."

JRuby delivers Ruby's core functions and productivity benefits along with Java interoperability and access to the full range of Java platform functionality. Because of this, Engine Yard points out that Ruby applications running on JRuby "benefit significantly" from the JVM's multi-threading and other performance strengths.

"JRuby provides Java teams with the ability to deploy Ruby code on the same servers, use the same libraries, and integrate with existing Java software that they are familiar with," said Charles Nutter, co-lead of the JRuby team at Engine Yard. "Complementing the Engine Yard JRuby support offering, JRuby on Engine Yard Cloud enables businesses and developers to realize a greater ROI on their Java investments."