Apache Derby is the world's only enterprise class open source, pure Java, fully transactional relational database. It's small enough to be embedded directly into your Java applications, providing a local data store that requires no DBA support. Powerful enough to support a wide range of traditional applications, this database ships as the default database for WebSphere Application Server and more than fifty other IBM software products. Apache Derby is built on the mature IBM Cloudscape code base IBM recently contributed to the open source community. The IBM Cloudscape code was nominated and won Developer.com's Product of the Year 2005 award.

Now, IBM's own database experts have written a comprehensive guide to making the most of Apache Derby—and its commercial counterpart, IBM Cloudscape— in any development or production environment. This book systematically introduces the Apache Derby/IBM Cloudscape technology: where it fits and how to install and configure it—and how to build robust business applications and Web services with it, one step at a time.