With Spring do you still need a java application server and when?
spring
Solution
No, you don't need an application server, you can see Spring as a proprietary, modular application server implementation / adapter. But you still need an a servlet container.
Data access part: you can use hibernate and some standalone connection pool
jms: Spring is not a JMS provider, but it nicely integrates POJOs with any JMS provider
Spring also has comprehensive transactions support
Finally you have jmx and aop support built-in and easy integration with bean validation, jpa, web services, rmi, jci, task scheduling, caching...
As you can see you can either use certified application server and Java EE stack or built on top of Tomcat and pick Spring modules you need. Sometimes Spring uses standard Java EE APIs (like JPA), more often it builts its own.
Problem
looks to me you need tomcat or some other servlet engine for the web part. what about data access part using hibernate and jms? Thanks.