Eclipse GlassFish in 2025: From Reference to Production And Beyond

For years, GlassFish was seen only as the reference implementation of Java EE and later Jakarta EE, useful only for demos. in 2025, It’s not true anymore and it hasn't been true for a while. In this talk, core Eclipse GlassFish project members will explore how GlassFish has matured into a modern, reliable, and cloud-ready runtime for Jakarta EE applications in production. Like Tomcat and Jetty, GlassFish is now a production-ready Java server actively maintained under an open-source foundation, and backed by commercial companies like OmniFish or Fujitsu.

What these slides cover:

* The journey from reference implementation to production runtime
* Key improvements in stability, compatibility, and developer experience
* New features recently added to GlassFish
* A new fast and flexible distribution for microservices
* Best practices and lessons learned from production deployments
* Plans for the future: where GlassFish is headed within the Java ecosystem

More information about the GlassFish project:
* https://omnifish.ee/glassfish/
* https://omnifish.ee/glassfish-community/
* https://glassfish.org
* https://github.com/eclipse-ee4j/glassfish/

Transcript

1. Eclipse GlassFish in 2025: From Reference to Production And Beyond Ondro Mihalyi @OndroMih
2. The Myth "Just a reference implementation. Shouldn’t be used in production" (Outdated claim) Today's Reality > Monthly releases with continuous updates > Runs on latest Java versions > Fast startup & optimized performance > Enterprise features: Clustering, SSO, JWT > Deploy as Server, JAR, or Docker > Commercially supported by OmniFish
3. Evolution Milestones 2006 GlassFish 1.0 (Sun Microsystems) 2017 - 2019 Oracle donates to Eclipse Foundation → Eclipse GlassFish 5.1 2022 GlassFish 7.0: Production-ready, monthly releases. First production-ready release since v3 2025 & Beyond GlassFish 8 M12 (Jakarta EE 11 TCK). Soon 7.1 & 8.0 Final
4. GlassFish vs Tomcat vs Jetty The Advantage GlassFish provides the full power of Jakarta EE while remaining as lean as Tomcat or Jetty. Servlet ref (Sun MS) → Apache Fnd Part of Mort Bay Server → Eclipse Fnd Java EE ref (Sun MS, Oracle) → Eclipse Fnd
5. Quality is Priority #1 Not an Afterthought TCK Compliance Every Release New Comprehensive Test Framework Mandatory Integration Tests for New Features Cluster Testing with TestContainers Result: Production-grade stability since v7.0
6. Continuous Improvements Drive Stability Rigorous Testing ▪ Every change validated ▪ Jakarta EE TCK compliance for every release ▪ MicroProfile TCK validation Reliability ▪ Redesigned asynchronous logging system ▪ Optimized connection pooling ▪ Fixed monitoring metrics Security ▪ Vulnerabilities addressed promptly ▪ Fixes applied without exposing sensitive information ▪ Continuous security updates
7. Developer Experience Faster Startup ▪ Starts in a few seconds ▪ Only 2-3 seconds longer than Spring Boot ▪ Embedded GlassFish matches Spring Boot speed Better Tooling ▪ Support for major IDEs ▪ Improved Arquillian container for testing ▪ Enhanced Embedded GlassFish Maven plugin Flexible Distributions ▪ Embedded: Embeddable in Java apps ▪ Command-line runnable ▪ Configurable via arguments or properties
8. New Features Modernize GlassFish MicroProfile • Config • REST Client • JWT Authentication • Health Checks Deployment • Runnable Embedded GlassFish • Official Docker Image • Flexible Distributions Enterprise • Admin Command Logger • Remote Windows Nodes (Native SSH) • Performance Optimizations
9. Live Demo #01 Cloud-Ready Runtime
10. Live Demo #01 Cloud-Ready Runtime Jakarta EE 11 on Docker Small Image Size & Quick Startup MicroProfile Config Integration Kubernetes / Minikube Deployment MicroProfile Health Check
11. Production Best Practices Monitoring > Built-in metrics via JMX or REST > Integration via JMX scrapers (Prometheus) > Future: Native OpenTelemetry supporty Testing > Use Embedded GlassFish > Fast startup for rapid feedback > Integration testing withTestContainers (Docker) Scaling & Clustering On-Premise Centrally managed by Admin Server with built-in session replication. Cloud / Kubernetes Lean services on Embedded GlassFish. Auto- provisioning based on load & MicroProfile Health.
12. DEMO #2: Fast & Flexible Distribution > Run microservice on Slim Distribution > Compare Startup Time vs Classic > Analyze Memory Footprint > Deploy REST Endpoint > Test Responsiveness (curl/postman)
13. From Reference to a Production Powerhouse Traditionally in the past Java EE Reference Implementation Now First Jakarta EE Platform & Web Profile Implementation for all Jakarta EE versions until now > Critical for evolving Jakarta EE ecosystem > Production Use: Automotive, Trading, Banking, Logistics Quality Assurance Heavy test suite & frequent releases Continuous performance improvements OmniFish stewardship & commercial support
14. The Road Ahead: 2025-2026 Early Dec 2025 GlassFish 7.1 & 8.0 RC > MicroProfile Health > Embedded GlassFish Monitoring > PKCS Certificates > Faster Bootstrap Late Dec 2025 GlassFish 8.0 Final > Full Jakarta EE 11 > Jakarta Data (JPA & NoSQL) > Virtual Threads (HTTP & Executors) Future OmniFish Tooling > Monitoring Console > Automated Upgrades > Vulnerability Detection Start implementing Jakarta EE 12 GlassFish 9.0 Future plans for 8.x • MP Telemetry • Better Kubernetes support • Embedded GlassFish Docker image
15. Eclipse Piranha Cloud GlassFish Components Reimagined Origin Started as a modular servlet container Foundation Built directly on proven GlassFish components 2025 Became an official Eclipse Foundation project Use Cases  Embeddable for Serverless functions  Runnable from command line for Microservices  Cloud-native deployments GlassFish components power modern Jakarta EE frameworks
16. Eclipse GlassFish: Both for a Reference and Production Use From Community Open development in the Eclipse Foundation. Driven by community needs. From OmniFish High quality guaranteed for enterprises. Commercial support & stewardship. Call to Action Try GlassFish Report Issues Follow Updates Contribute: Guides, Documentation, Code
17. Q&A Thank you!