Red Hat has submitted several new specifications for Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 7 (JSR 342) in a move to back the company's corporate stance on Java EE 7 as the "platform of choice" for the cloud. The new Java Specification Requests (JSRs) are said to create standards for Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and cloud deployments, offering Java users consistency, flexibility, and portability across on-premise and cloud environments.

Red Hat insists that these new JSRs reflect Java EE's position as one of the most flexible and adaptable application platforms in the market. Java EE 7 includes enhancements that enable Java EE 7-based applications to run more easily in the cloud -- it also includes new and extended APIs to improve developer performance, including Context and Dependency Injection (CDI), Web Sockets, HTML 5 for mobile applications, Java Message Service (JMS) 2.0, and Bean Validation. Java EE 7 also incorporates features for multi-tenancy, security, application management, application scalability, and cloud management.

"Java is a living, viable standard and platform for enterprise and cloud applications," said Craig Muzilla, vice president and general manager, middleware business division at Red Hat. "Red Hat is committed to an open, community process and we intend to continue to be at the forefront of Java's future."

The new specifications submitted and led by Red Hat include:

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• Context and Dependency Injection 1.1 -- CDI simplifies and unifies various layers of a Java EE application by providing a standard model for Dependency Injection and lifecycle management and to allow components to interact in a loosely coupled way. The result is simpler, more maintainable, and more portable applications without having to introduce non-standard, proprietary frameworks.

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• Data Grids -- Distributed data grids allow easier and more cost-effective scaling for the data-tier, which is essential for large-scale cloud or utility computing and multi-tenant application platforms.

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• Bean Validation -- provides a consistent approach to implementing validation logic throughout an application, from the persistence layer to the presentation layer. The unified approach helps avoid duplication and inconsistencies, ultimately resulting in speedier development.