Neo Technology has launched Spring Data Neo4j 2.0, a scalable graph database, which it describes as the best NoSQL database for Spring. The announcement was made at the SpringOne 2GX 2011 Conference by Neo, a platinum sponsor of the event. This new release gives users the ability to develop applications that leverage complex, connected data, quickly on the Spring Framework. Neo also announced new customers, and named key executive additions, including Rod Johnson, Rickard Öberg, and Lars Nordwall to its team.
Spring Data Neo4j (SDN) enables POJO (Plain Old Java Object)-based development for Neo4j. It extends annotated entity classes with transparent mapping functionality and offers a template programming model equivalent to well-known Spring templates. Spring Data Neo4j is part of the bigger Spring Data project which aims to provide convenient support for NOSQL databases and make it easier to build Spring-powered applications that use new data access technologies such as non-relational databases, map-reduce frameworks, and cloud based data services.
"Spring Data Neo4j provides great accessibility to Neo from the Spring Framework and this matters because Spring has 3 million active enterprise developers, and graph databases are uniquely positioned inside the NoSQL space to be relevant in the enterprise," Emil Eifrem is CEO of Neo Technology and co-founder of the Neo4j project, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "It solves a lot of real problems for the enterprise - and since there are so many enterprise developers using Spring and there are so many problems out there inside the enterprise that graph databases and neo, in particular solve, we think that this is a great combination."
Key features that Spring Data Neo4j provides are:
- Alternative mapping technology tailored to run against the Neo4j server technology eliminates friction in development
- Support for spring-data-commons Mapping Abstraction
- Extended Repository support (Cypher-DSL, QueryDSL, derived finder methods)
In addition, Neo Technology - which in September announced $10.6 million in Series A funding led by Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, with Sunstone Capital, Conor Venture Partners and Johnson, who was the founder and CEO of SpringSource, also participating in the round - has strengthened its management team with new members. Johnson, who is general manager of the SpringSource product division of VMware, is now also chairman of Neo's board of directors. Johnson has one external board seat, says Eifrem, "and it is with us."
Neo has hired Rickard Öberg, developer of JBoss, and technology veteran Lars Nordwall as the company's COO. According to Neo, it is experiencing strong momentum with customer wins including CareerArc, StudiVZ, Viadeo, Telenor, and Deutsche Telekom. In response to its growing business, Neo also announced it has established its new company headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
For more information visit neotechnology.com.