Engine Yard Cloud Adds JRuby Java Tools

Engine Yard has announced the general availability of JRuby on the Engine Yard Cloud.

With JRuby support, the Engine Yard platform as a service (PaaS) brings together the combination of Java performance and Ruby agility. JRuby, a Java implementation of the Ruby programming language, is a popular open source package that enables Ruby applications to run on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

Java Cloud Expansion

JRuby allows Java developers to use Ruby to efficiently expand the capabilities of Java applications or create new applications that leverage existing Java software.

“We are thrilled to announce that customers can now use JRuby in Engine Yard Cloud and leverage the power of Java on the Engine Yard platform.” said Dr Nic Williams, vice president of technology at Engine Yard, in a statement. “This is huge in that it is the first truly threaded implementation of Ruby to have full production support. Customers can get the performance benefits of real concurrency in an enterprise-grade environment. Engine Yard is the first platform to make available all stable, production-ready Ruby implementations, including JRuby, MRI, and Rubinius.”

The JRuby implementation of Ruby runs on the JVM and delivers all of the advantages of Ruby along with Java interoperability and access to the full range of Java platform functionality, Engine yard officials said. Moreover, Ruby applications running on JRuby benefit from the JVM’s multi-threading and other performance strengths.

“JRuby provides unique productivity benefits to Java teams, including the ability to deploy Ruby code on the same servers, use the same libraries, and integrate with existing Java software that they are familiar with,” said Charles Nutter, co-lead of the JRuby team at Engine Yard, in a statement. “Complementing the Engine Yard JRuby support offering, JRuby on Engine Yard Cloud enables businesses and developers to realise a greater ROI on their Java investments.”

Three of the JRuby open source project’s four core contributors work at Engine Yard, including Thomas Enebo, Nutter and Nick Sieger. Engine Yard also sponsors the development ofTrinidadand employs its primary developer, David Calavera.Trinidadis an application server designed to run Rack applications within Apache Tomcat, a lightweight Java web server and a key enabler for JRuby support.

Developers can try JRuby on Engine Yard Cloud with 500 compute hours for free. A quick start guide gives more details on the benefits Ruby can offer and how to get started with JRuby. Engine Yard will be an exhibitor at the upcoming JavaOne conference, which runs 2-6 October in San Francisco.