Modern software applications have the option of storing data in more than one type of data store. Whereas traditional data stores like Relational databases remain popular, NoSQL databases and Cloud-based storage have also become commonplace. Each of these types of data stores has its own strengths and is therefore suited for different types of business use cases. Complex business applications therefore end up utilizing more than one type of data store to make data storage, retrieval and presentation operations more efficient. This presents the challenge of application programmers having to deal with the complexity of understanding the API provided by multiple data stores and using these API appropriately in their business applications.

Spring Data is a project that aims at providing a consistent, easy-to-use API to application programmers, independent of the underlying data store used. It combines the power of the Spring framework with concepts from proven data access paradigms such as domain-driven design to provide a familiar and consistent foundation to application programmers for accessing different types of data stores, while still retaining the specifics of an underlying data store, where appropriate.

The Spring Data project consists of several subprojects that can be used as libraries for accessing specific types of data stores. The full set of data stores supported by Spring Data and its subprojects can be obtained from the main page of the project.