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Spring Boot 3.5: The Last Hurrah Before the Serverless Shift?

Spring Boot 3.5, released in May 2025, marks a significant milestone in the evolution of the Spring ecosystem. Packed with enhancements, tighter configurations, and improved support for modern deployment environments, it may also be the final major version before the inevitable transition to serverless computing becomes mainstream. Let’s explore what’s new in 3.5, why it feels like a closing chapter, and how developers can prepare for the serverless future.

What’s New in Spring Boot 3.5

Spring Boot 3.5 introduces several key features and refinements aimed at improving developer experience, performance, and security:

🔧 Configuration Enhancements

  • Structured Logging Improvements: Better support for structured logs, making observability easier in cloud-native environments.
  • SSL Support for Service Connections: Secure communication between services is now more streamlined.
  • Environment Variable Property Loading: Simplifies configuration in containerized and cloud environments.

⚙️ Execution and Initialization

  • AsyncTaskExecutor with Custom Executor: More control over asynchronous task execution.
  • Auto-configuration for Bean Background Initialization: Improves startup performance by initializing beans in the background.

🛡️ Security and Validation

  • Heapdump Endpoint Restrictions: Now disabled by default to prevent accidental exposure of sensitive data.
  • Profile Naming Validation: Enforces stricter rules for profile names to avoid misconfigurations.

These changes reflect a clear orientation toward cloud-native readiness, but they also hint at a deeper shift in architectural philosophy.

Why Spring Boot 3.5 Might Be the Last Before Serverless Takes Over

1. Cloud-Native Maturity

Spring Boot has evolved to support containerized deployments, microservices, and reactive programming. With 3.5, it’s clear that the framework is optimized for Kubernetes and cloud platforms. However, the next logical step is serverless, where infrastructure concerns are abstracted away entirely.

2. Industry Momentum Toward Serverless

Major cloud providers (AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Google Cloud Functions) have matured significantly. Serverless adoption is growing due to:
  • Cost efficiency: Pay-per-use models.
  • Scalability: Automatic scaling without manual intervention.
  • Developer productivity: Focus on business logic, not infrastructure.

3. Spring Cloud Function and Native Compilation

Spring already supports serverless via Spring Cloud Function, which allows writing functions that can run on AWS Lambda, Azure, or Google Cloud. Combined with GraalVM native image support, Spring applications can start in milliseconds—ideal for serverless environments.

How Developers Can Prepare for the Serverless Future

✅ Start with Spring Cloud Function

Here’s a simple example of a Spring Cloud Function that can be deployed to AWS Lambda:

@Bean 
public Function<String, String> uppercase() {
 return value -> value.toUpperCase(); } 

This function can be packaged and deployed using Spring’s AWS adapter.

🧪 Experiment with Native Images

Use Spring Boot’s support for GraalVM to compile your application into a native binary:

./mvnw -Pnative native:compile

This reduces cold start times—critical for serverless functions.

🧰 Embrace Event-Driven Design

Serverless thrives on event-driven architecture. Start designing your applications around events, queues, and triggers rather than traditional REST endpoints.

Conclusion: A Fork in the Road

Spring Boot 3.5 is a polished, powerful release that continues to serve traditional microservice architectures well. But it also feels like a swan song for the monolithic server-based model. With Spring Cloud Function, GraalVM, and the rise of serverless platforms, the future is clear: less server, more function.

As developers, embracing this shift means rethinking how we build, deploy, and scale applications. Spring Boot has laid the groundwork—now it’s up to us to take the leap.




References
Spring Boot 3.5.0 available now
Spring Boot 3.5 Release Notes - GitHub
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