Generate GraalVM native images with a Maven plugin and embed native image configuration inside the jar files for easier generation.

Elastic infrastructure that scales up & down based on demand is not just a “serverless” fad but an operational model which reduces cost and waste.  Yet there is a little devil lurking under the covers…  When an application / microservice needs to spin up based on demand there can be some lag as the application needs to be downloaded to the node, potentially a VM needs to be started, the application itself needs to be started, and potentially local caches need to be hydrated.  In traditional enterprise systems this “cold start” process can realistically take tens of minutes.  But it’s near impossible to have demand-based scaling when things take that long to start.
GraalVM is a Java Virtual Machine implementation that addresses parts of the “cold start” problem by doing Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) compilation on JVM-based applications.  GraalVM can create a “native image” of your application so that it no longer needs to run inside a JVM.  This can reduce startup time and in some cases improve overall performance.  The…