Knime Server 4.1 JDK 8 requirement

Hello,

I utilize Knime Server 4.1 in my master thesis and I'm in the installation process. The installation manual states JDK8 as a prerequirement and mentions it again directly before the TomEE installation step. I wonder why that is?

The running note in the tomee-plus package 1.7.1 states a "JRE version 6 or later", the Analytics Plattform version  itself comes with a builtin JRE7. So far I couldn't find a reason for JDK8. Is it a requiremnt for the TomEE Plus features?

I have no problems with the installation of JDK8 to work with Knime Server 4.1  (it can increase the deployment time I need for the target environment though), but I'm simply curious about the reason for this requirement, to justify it in my thesis if nothing else.

The KNIME Server web application simply requires Java 8.

Thanks for the information.