JRush | Container Essentials: Fast Builds, Secure Images, Zero Vulnerabilities
Summary
This session of JRush focuses on modern application security from multiple angles: containerization, developer tooling, and secure deployment practices. Speakers discuss cloud native buildpacks as a safer alternative to handwritten Dockerfiles, showing how they simplify builds, improve reproducibility, and reduce security risks. The talk also demonstrates how IntelliJ IDEA and JetBrains security tooling help developers detect vulnerabilities early through inspections, taint analysis, and CI/CD integration. Finally, hardened container images are presented as a new security baseline that minimizes attack surface, reduces CVEs, and simplifies compliance. Overall, the episode emphasizes shifting security left through better tooling, standardized images, and shared responsibility across teams.
About Catherine
Java developer passionate about Spring Boot. Writer. Developer Advocate at BellSoft
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Jan 20, 2026
JDBC vs ORM vs jOOQ: Choose the Right Java Database Tool
Still unsure what is the difference between JPA, Hibernate, JDBC, or jOOQ and when to use which? This video clarifies the entire Java database access stack with real, production-oriented examples. We start at the foundation, which is JDBC, a low-level API every other tool eventually relies on for database communication. Then, we go through the ORM concept, JPA as a specification of ORM, Hibernate as the implementation and extension of JPA, and Blaze Persistence as a powerful upgrade to JPA Criteria API. From there, we take a different path with jOOQ: a database-first, SQL-centric approach that provides type-safe queries and catches many SQL errors at compile time instead of runtime. You’ll see when raw JDBC makes sense for small, focused services, when Hibernate fits CRUD-heavy domains, and when jOOQ excels at complex reporting and analytics. We discuss real performance pitfalls such as N+1 queries and lazy loading, and show practical combination strategies like “JPA for CRUD, jOOQ for reports.” The goal is to equip you with clarity so that you can make informed architectural decisions based on domain complexity, query patterns, and long-term maintainability.
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Jan 13, 2026
Hibernate: Ditch or Double Down? When ORM Isn't Enough
Every Java team debates Hibernate at some point: productivity champion or performance liability? Both are right. This video shows you when to rely on Hibernate's ORM magic and when to drop down to SQL. We walk through production scenarios: domain models with many-to-many relations where Hibernate excels, analytical reports with window functions where JDBC dominates, and hybrid architectures that use both in the same Spring Boot codebase. You'll see real code examples: the N+1 query trap that kills performance, complex window functions and anti-joins that Hibernate can't handle, equals/hashCode pitfalls with lazy loading, and practical two-level caching strategies. We also explore how Hibernate works under the hood—translating HQL to database-specific SQL dialects, managing sessions and transactions through JDBC, implementing JPA specifications. The strategic insight: modern applications need both ORM convenience for transactional business logic and SQL precision for data-intensive analytics. Use Hibernate for CRUD and relationship management. Use SQL where ORM abstractions leak or performance demands direct control.
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Backend Developer Roadmap 2026: What You Need to Know
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JDBC Connection Pools in Microservices. Why They Break Down (and What to Do Instead)
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