What is JPA?

Java Persistence API (JPA) is a collection of classes and methods that have​ been provided by Oracle to persistently store the massive amount of data in a database. Java developers use lots of code (or the proprietary framework) ​to interact with databases. However, with JPA, the burden of interacting with the database is reduced significantly as it forms a bridge between object models (Java program) and relational models (database program).

Why JPA?

• JPA reduces the burden of writing extensive codes for the relational object management.

• Easy interaction with the database instance.

• A user can easily switch the JPA implementation (as long as they are not using any proprietary features).

• Increase in the developer’s productivity.

• Type and parameter are handled automatically.

• JPA provides caching which​ is an excellent performance tuning feature.

JPA providers

Since JPA is an open-source API, various enterprise vendors(e.g., Oracle, Redhat, Eclipse, etc.)​ provide new products by adding the JPA flavor to them. Some of these products include Hibernate, Eclipselink, Toplink, Spring Data JPA, etc.