title: How to deploy basic java application
body: <p>I am quite new to java applications in a production environment and have never deployed.  </p>
  
  <p>I have an application that connects to a mysql database, reads in data, preforms some NLP and other data manipulation, then saves the data back to the mysql DB.  </p>
  
  <p>The application is to be deployed on a rackspace cloud server and run every couple of hours (maybe with a cron job?).  </p>
  
  <p>I've been looking into using maven to help with the build for deployment, but I have no idea if that is the right tool to use or if to build a .war or .jar.  Any help pointing me in the right direction would be great!  Thanks!</p>