On the back of its existing JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6 Early Adopter Program, Red Hat has made a formal announcement to highlight the public beta version of its JBoss Enterprise Application Platform. This cloud-ready solution is based upon JBoss Application Server 7, one of the first Java EE servers available in a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and is designed to help organizations deploy to the cloud at their own pace.

For developers, Red Hat is delivering the beta of JBoss Developer Studio 5. This toolset is positioned as a programmer solution for mission-critical applications of all types from data center-based apps to lighter weight mobile devices.

When the company describes JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6 as "cloud ready", it is referring to its suitability in both on-premise and public clouds. The product now comes with extended management capabilities that allow developers to automate processes for applications and integrate their own management tools.

According to Red Hat, "JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6 provides a number of significant usability upgrades. These include faster start-up and boot times and a smarter core that starts and stops services as required without the need to manually load and manage classes."

Red Hat says that it continues its focus on developer productivity in real-world deployment scenarios, and JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6 supports the full Java EE 6 specification.

Additionally, JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6 continues to build upon the JBoss Open Choice strategy, featuring support for other popular frameworks such as Spring, Struts, and Google Web Toolkit (GWT). It also offers increased integration with other development tooling, including Maven and Hudson and JBoss Community projects such as Arquillian and Hibernate.