Elevating Performance with Spring Boot 3.3 and Tanzu Platform: A New Era of Innovation!

On behalf of the Spring Boot team and our dedicated community, we are thrilled to announce the release of Spring Boot 3.3.0, now available. This release is a significant step forward to enhance performance, security, and developer experience. In this blog, we explore the key features of Spring Boot 3.3.0 and its seamless integration with Tanzu Platform, designed to empower developers, software engineers, and tech enthusiasts to build robust and scalable applications.

What's New in Spring Boot 3.3?

Spring Boot 3.3.0 introduces innovations and improvements that cater to the needs of modern software development. Here are some highlights:

CDS Support

Class Data Sharing (CDS) support is a game-changer for startup times and memory consumption. By enabling CDS, applications can benefit from faster startup speeds and reduced memory usage, ensuring more efficient resource management.

Observability Improvements

Monitoring and observability are crucial for maintaining healthy applications. The new release includes enhanced support for Micrometer's @SpanTag, process InfoContributor, and Prometheus 1.x. Observations can now be enabled for the simple, direct, and stream listener for RabbitMQ.

Added support for tagged fields for both Brave and OpenTelemetry. These tools provide deeper insights into application performance and health, enabling proactive issue resolution 

If no application name is explicitly set, unknown_service is now used for OpenTelemetry. This aligns the Spring Boot default with the OpenTelemetry specification.

Security Improvements

Security remains a top priority. Spring Boot 3.3.0 introduces auto-configuration for JwtAuthenticationConverter, simplifying JWT-based authentication. This enhancement streamlines security configurations, making it easier to implement robust authentication mechanisms.

Service Connection Support

The latest version supports service connections for Apache ActiveMQ Artemis and LDAP, broadening the scope of integration possibilities. These additions seamlessly connect and interact with critical messaging and directory services.

Docker Compose Enhancements

Developers working with containerized environments will appreciate the added support for Bitnami Container Images in Docker Compose. This update simplifies container orchestration and deployment, making it more convenient to manage microservices architectures.

Virtual Thread Support

With the rise of reactive programming, the new virtual thread support for websockets provides a more efficient way to handle concurrent connections. This feature enhances the scalability of real-time applications, enabling them to handle more users simultaneously.

Base64 Resource Support

Spring Boot 3.3.0 introduces support for Base64 resources in property and YAML files. This functionality is useful for embedding binary data directly within configuration files and streamlining configuration management.

SBOM Actuator Endpoint

Managing software bill of materials (SBOM) is crucial for software supply chain security. The new SBOM actuator endpoint offers a comprehensive view of the dependencies and their versions, facilitating better transparency and compliance.

Revamped Documentation

We understand the importance of clear and comprehensive documentation. The Spring Boot documentation has undergone a complete overhaul and is now powered by Antora. This update ensures that developers have access to up-to-date and easy-to-navigate resources.

SSL SNI Support

Security is further bolstered with SSL SNI support for embedded web servers. This enhancement allows multiple SSL certificates to be served from a single IP address, improving security and flexibility.

Dependency Upgrades

Spring Boot 3.3.0 includes upgrades to the latest versions of several Spring projects and third-party libraries. These updates ensure that your projects benefit from the latest features, security patches, and performance improvements.

Other Changes

In addition to the major features highlighted above numerous other changes and improvements are documented in the release notes. We've also identified a list of deprecated classes and methods that will be removed in future releases. Staying informed about these changes will help you plan for smooth migrations and upgrades.

Embracing the Tanzu Platform

For those leveraging VMware's Tanzu platform, Spring Boot seamlessly integrates, offering a robust system for developing and deploying cloud-native applications. The combination of Spring and Tanzu provides enhanced scalability, flexibility, and operational efficiency.

Key Benefits:

• Optimized Performance: Enhanced compatibility with Tanzu enables your applications to perform optimally in any environment.

• Streamlined Deployment: Integrating Spring Boot with Tanzu simplifies the deployment process, allowing faster and more reliable releases.

• Unified Ecosystem: A cohesive ecosystem that supports modern application development from inception through deployment.

How to Get Started with Spring Boot 3.3

Ready to explore the new features and improvements in Spring Boot 3.3.0? Here's how you can get started:

1. Download Spring Boot 3.3.0:  Visit Spring Initializr to download the latest release.

2. Review the Release Notes: Familiarize yourself with the detailed release notes to understand the changes and how they impact your projects.

3. Update Your Dependencies: Modify your project's dependencies to include Spring Boot 3.3.0 and other updated libraries.

4. Test and Validate: Thoroughly test your applications to ensure compatibility and capitalize on the new features.

Join the Community

As we push the boundaries and invest in the future of software development, we invite you to join our vibrant community. Share your experiences, offer feedback, and collaborate with fellow developers to shape the future of Spring Boot and Tanzu Platform.

Spring Boot 3.3.0 represents a significant milestone in our ongoing journey to empower developers with powerful tools and features. From improved startup times and observability to enhanced security and service connections, this release is designed to elevate your development experience. Coupled with Tanzu Platform, it offers a robust foundation for building scalable and resilient applications.

Download Spring Boot 3.3.0 today and join us in continuing to innovate and grow. Spring Boot 3.3 is now available on Maven and will move to the private repository after 12 months, in May 2025. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this release. Your efforts drive us forward, and we look forward to what we can achieve together!

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Let’s continue to innovate, collaborate, and grow together.

About the Author

Michelle is a global product line marketing engineer for all things Spring. An accidental technologist who started with selling caller ID, she has worked in and around marketing and sales for a few decades launching new products, working with B2C, B2D, and B2B. Her first line of code was a few years back and she has been working with developers ever since. Michelle lives in the Pittsburgh region with her husband and two children. She loves to cook, entertain, lodge, travel, and binge-watch really bad TV. If you make her laugh, she will be your number one fan.

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