Chapter 1. Installing WildFly

The Java language has undergone many changes since its first release and will continue to adapt to meet the needs of the developer. Oracle, which acquired Sun in 2010, stated that its high-level Java strategy is to enhance and extend the reach of Java to new and emerging software development objectives; simplify, optimize, and integrate the Java platform into new deployment architectures; and invest in the Java developer community allowing for increased participation.

This has certainly been true in the Enterprise edition of Java, the main focus of which has been improved developer productivity, providing support for HTML5, and meeting enterprise demands. Out of all the Enterprise Java releases, Java EE 7 has been the most transparent and open to community participation. By allowing public feedback, the demands of the community can be realized and used to help shape Java EE 7 for the better, ultimately adding to the growth and success of Enterprise Java.

In addition, a large number of open source projects are used within the application server, such as Hibernate and Undertow. Integrating all these libraries does not come without a price because each library has evolved with complexity and requires more and more additional libraries to work.

As most IT experts agree, the challenge for today's application servers is to combine a rich set of features requested by customers along with a lightweight and flexible container configuration.