diff --git a/accumulo/pom.xml b/accumulo/pom.xml
index 08da0af6..d638998b 100644
--- a/accumulo/pom.xml
+++ b/accumulo/pom.xml
@@ -1,83 +1,83 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2011 YCSB++ project, 2014 - 2016 YCSB contributors.
 All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
   <artifactId>accumulo-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Accumulo DB Binding</name>
   <properties>
     <!-- This should match up to the one from your Accumulo version -->
     <hadoop.version>2.2.0</hadoop.version>
   </properties>
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.accumulo</groupId>
       <artifactId>accumulo-core</artifactId>
       <version>${accumulo.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <!-- Needed for hadoop.io.Text :( -->
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
       <artifactId>hadoop-common</artifactId>
       <version>${hadoop.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
       <version>4.12</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.accumulo</groupId>
       <artifactId>accumulo-minicluster</artifactId>
       <version>${accumulo.version}</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
     <!-- needed directly only in test, but transitive
          at runtime for accumulo, hadoop, and thrift. -->
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
       <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
       <version>1.7.13</version>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <build>
     <testResources>
       <testResource>
         <directory>../workloads</directory>
         <targetPath>workloads</targetPath>
       </testResource>
       <testResource>
         <directory>src/test/resources</directory>
       </testResource>
     </testResources>
   </build>
 </project>
diff --git a/aerospike/pom.xml b/aerospike/pom.xml
index 97a3213e..d882bdeb 100644
--- a/aerospike/pom.xml
+++ b/aerospike/pom.xml
@@ -1,45 +1,45 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2015-2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>aerospike-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Aerospike DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.aerospike</groupId>
       <artifactId>aerospike-client</artifactId>
       <version>${aerospike.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/asynchbase/pom.xml b/asynchbase/pom.xml
index cf491907..b84a739c 100644
--- a/asynchbase/pom.xml
+++ b/asynchbase/pom.xml
@@ -1,105 +1,105 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
 Copyright (c) 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent/</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>asynchbase-binding</artifactId>
   <name>AsyncHBase Client Binding for Apache HBase</name>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.hbase</groupId>
       <artifactId>asynchbase</artifactId>
       <version>${asynchbase.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
     
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.zookeeper</groupId>
       <artifactId>zookeeper</artifactId>
       <version>3.4.5</version>
       <exclusions>
         <exclusion>
           <groupId>log4j</groupId>
           <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
         </exclusion>
         <exclusion>
           <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
           <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
         </exclusion>
         <exclusion>
           <groupId>jline</groupId>
           <artifactId>jline</artifactId>
         </exclusion>
         <exclusion>
           <groupId>junit</groupId>
           <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
         </exclusion>
         <exclusion>
           <groupId>org.jboss.netty</groupId>
           <artifactId>netty</artifactId>
         </exclusion>
       </exclusions>
     </dependency>
     
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
       <version>4.12</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
     
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.hbase</groupId>
       <artifactId>hbase-testing-util</artifactId>
       <version>${hbase10.version}</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
     
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.hbase</groupId>
       <artifactId>hbase-client</artifactId>
       <version>${hbase10.version}</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
     
     <dependency>
       <groupId>log4j</groupId>
       <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
       <version>1.2.17</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
     
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
       <artifactId>log4j-over-slf4j</artifactId>
       <version>1.7.7</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/binding-parent/datastore-specific-descriptor/pom.xml b/binding-parent/datastore-specific-descriptor/pom.xml
index 840242e7..753d3786 100644
--- a/binding-parent/datastore-specific-descriptor/pom.xml
+++ b/binding-parent/datastore-specific-descriptor/pom.xml
@@ -1,44 +1,44 @@
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>root</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../../</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>datastore-specific-descriptor</artifactId>
   <name>Per Datastore Binding descriptor</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <description>
     This module contains the assembly descriptor used by the individual components
     to build binding-specific distributions.
   </description>
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>
 
diff --git a/binding-parent/pom.xml b/binding-parent/pom.xml
index 0416208b..788aebe3 100644
--- a/binding-parent/pom.xml
+++ b/binding-parent/pom.xml
@@ -1,132 +1,132 @@
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2015-2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>root</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
   <name>YCSB Datastore Binding Parent</name>
   <packaging>pom</packaging>
 
   <description>
     This module acts as the parent for new datastore bindings.
     It creates a datastore specific binary artifact.
   </description>
 
   <modules>
     <module>datastore-specific-descriptor</module>
   </modules>
 
   <build>
     <pluginManagement>
       <plugins>
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
           <version>${maven.assembly.version}</version>
           <dependencies>
             <dependency>
               <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
               <artifactId>datastore-specific-descriptor</artifactId>
               <version>${project.version}</version>
             </dependency>
           </dependencies>
           <configuration>
             <descriptorRefs>
               <descriptorRef>datastore-specific-assembly</descriptorRef>
             </descriptorRefs>
             <finalName>ycsb-${project.artifactId}-${project.version}</finalName>
             <formats>
               <format>tar.gz</format>
             </formats>
             <appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
             <tarLongFileMode>posix</tarLongFileMode>
           </configuration>
           <executions>
             <execution>
               <phase>package</phase>
               <goals>
                 <goal>single</goal>
               </goals>
             </execution>
           </executions>
         </plugin>
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
           <executions>
             <execution>
               <id>validate</id>
               <configuration>
                 <configLocation>../checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
               </configuration>
             </execution>
           </executions>
         </plugin>
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
           <version>${maven.dependency.version}</version>
         </plugin>
       </plugins>
     </pluginManagement>
     <plugins>
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
           <executions>
             <execution>
               <id>stage-dependencies</id>
               <phase>package</phase>
               <goals>
                 <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
                </goals>
                <configuration>
                  <includeScope>runtime</includeScope>
                </configuration>
             </execution>
           </executions>
         </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
   <profiles>
     <!-- If the binding defines a README, presume we should make an assembly. -->
     <profile>
       <id>datastore-binding</id>
       <activation>
         <file>
           <exists>README.md</exists>
         </file>
       </activation>
       <build>
         <plugins>
           <plugin>
             <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
             <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
           </plugin>
         </plugins>
       </build>
     </profile>
   </profiles>
 </project>
 
diff --git a/cassandra/pom.xml b/cassandra/pom.xml
index 274ed526..e988f87f 100644
--- a/cassandra/pom.xml
+++ b/cassandra/pom.xml
@@ -1,51 +1,51 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
      <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
      <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-     <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+     <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
      <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
   
   <artifactId>cassandra-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Cassandra DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.cassandra</groupId>
        <artifactId>cassandra-all</artifactId>
        <version>${cassandra.version}</version>
      </dependency>
      <!-- CQL driver -->
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.datastax.cassandra</groupId>
        <artifactId>cassandra-driver-core</artifactId>
        <version>${cassandra.cql.version}</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
        <artifactId>core</artifactId>
        <version>${project.version}</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
      </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/cassandra2/pom.xml b/cassandra2/pom.xml
index 1a4b0ab6..f2bab41b 100644
--- a/cassandra2/pom.xml
+++ b/cassandra2/pom.xml
@@ -1,81 +1,81 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 
 <!--
 Copyright (c) 2012-2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>cassandra2-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Cassandra 2.1+ DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <properties>
     <!-- Skip tests by default. will be activated by jdk8 profile -->
     <skipTests>true</skipTests>
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>
     <!-- CQL driver -->
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.datastax.cassandra</groupId>
       <artifactId>cassandra-driver-core</artifactId>
       <version>${cassandra2.cql.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.cassandraunit</groupId>
       <artifactId>cassandra-unit</artifactId>
       <version>3.0.0.1</version>
       <classifier>shaded</classifier>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
       <version>4.12</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
   <profiles>
     <!-- Cassandra 2.2+ requires JDK8 to run, so none of our tests
          will work unless we're using jdk8.
       -->
     <profile>
       <id>jdk8-tests</id>
       <activation>
         <jdk>1.8</jdk>
       </activation>
       <properties>
         <skipTests>false</skipTests>
       </properties>
     </profile>
   </profiles>
 </project>
diff --git a/core/pom.xml b/core/pom.xml
index 7a4cb944..d0d67f40 100644
--- a/core/pom.xml
+++ b/core/pom.xml
@@ -1,93 +1,93 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>root</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
   </parent>
   
   <artifactId>core</artifactId>
   <name>Core YCSB</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <properties>
      <checkstyle.failOnViolation>false</checkstyle.failOnViolation>
      <jackson.api.version>1.9.4</jackson.api.version>
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>	
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.htrace</groupId>
       <artifactId>htrace-core4</artifactId>
       <version>4.1.0-incubating</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
       <artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId>
       <version>${jackson.api.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
       <artifactId>jackson-core-asl</artifactId>
       <version>${jackson.api.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.testng</groupId>
       <artifactId>testng</artifactId>
       <version>6.1.1</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.hdrhistogram</groupId>
       <artifactId>HdrHistogram</artifactId>
       <version>2.1.4</version>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <build>
     <resources>
       <resource>
         <directory>src/main/resources</directory>
         <filtering>true</filtering>
       </resource>
     </resources>
     <plugins>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>${maven.assembly.version}</version>
         <configuration>
           <descriptorRefs>
             <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
           </descriptorRefs>
           <appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
         </configuration>
         <executions>
           <execution>
             <phase>package</phase>
             <goals>
               <goal>single</goal>
             </goals>
           </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 </project>
diff --git a/couchbase/pom.xml b/couchbase/pom.xml
index 5f4780aa..ee2edd87 100644
--- a/couchbase/pom.xml
+++ b/couchbase/pom.xml
@@ -1,55 +1,55 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2015-2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 
          xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
          xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <parent>
         <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
         <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-        <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
         <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
     </parent>
 
     <artifactId>couchbase-binding</artifactId>
     <name>Couchbase Binding</name>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
     <dependencies>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.couchbase.client</groupId>
             <artifactId>couchbase-client</artifactId>
             <version>${couchbase.version}</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
             <artifactId>core</artifactId>
             <version>${project.version}</version>
             <scope>provided</scope>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
             <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
             <version>2.2.2</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
             <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
         </dependency>
     </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/couchbase2/pom.xml b/couchbase2/pom.xml
index f152a856..5e9da42d 100644
--- a/couchbase2/pom.xml
+++ b/couchbase2/pom.xml
@@ -1,48 +1,48 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
 Copyright (c) 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
          xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <parent>
         <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
         <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-        <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
         <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
     </parent>
 
     <artifactId>couchbase2-binding</artifactId>
     <name>Couchbase Java SDK 2.x Binding</name>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
     <dependencies>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.couchbase.client</groupId>
             <artifactId>java-client</artifactId>
             <version>${couchbase2.version}</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
             <artifactId>core</artifactId>
             <version>${project.version}</version>
             <scope>provided</scope>
         </dependency>
     </dependencies>
 
 </project>
diff --git a/distribution/pom.xml b/distribution/pom.xml
index 459b4db3..c0984508 100644
--- a/distribution/pom.xml
+++ b/distribution/pom.xml
@@ -1,212 +1,212 @@
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>root</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>ycsb</artifactId>
   <name>YCSB Release Distribution Builder</name>
   <packaging>pom</packaging>
 
   <description>
     This module creates the release package of the YCSB with all DB library bindings.
     It is only used by the build process and does not contain any real
     code of itself.
   </description>
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>accumulo-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>aerospike-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>asynchbase-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>cassandra-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>couchbase-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>couchbase2-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>dynamodb-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>elasticsearch-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>geode-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>googledatastore-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>googlebigtable-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>hbase094-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>hbase098-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>hbase10-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>hypertable-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>infinispan-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>jdbc-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>kudu-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>memcached-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>mongodb-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>nosqldb-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>orientdb-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>redis-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>riak-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>s3-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>solr-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>tarantool-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
 <!--
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>voldemort-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
 -->
   </dependencies>
   <build>
     <plugins>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>${maven.assembly.version}</version>
         <configuration>
           <descriptors>
             <descriptor>src/main/assembly/distribution.xml</descriptor>
           </descriptors>
           <appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
           <tarLongFileMode>posix</tarLongFileMode>
         </configuration>
         <executions>
           <execution>
             <phase>package</phase>
             <goals>
               <goal>single</goal>
             </goals>
           </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
 
     </plugins>
   </build>
 
 </project>
 
diff --git a/dynamodb/pom.xml b/dynamodb/pom.xml
index 593371a6..a870fcb2 100644
--- a/dynamodb/pom.xml
+++ b/dynamodb/pom.xml
@@ -1,77 +1,77 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>dynamodb-binding</artifactId>
   <name>DynamoDB DB Binding</name>
 
   <properties>
     <checkstyle.failOnViolation>false</checkstyle.failOnViolation>
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.amazonaws</groupId>
       <artifactId>aws-java-sdk</artifactId>
       <version>1.10.48</version>
   </dependency>
   <dependency>
      <groupId>log4j</groupId>
      <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
      <version>1.2.17</version>
   </dependency>
   <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <build>
     <plugins>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>2.15</version>
         <configuration>
           <consoleOutput>true</consoleOutput>
           <configLocation>../checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
           <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
           <failsOnError>true</failsOnError>
         </configuration>
         <executions>
           <execution>
             <id>validate</id>
             <phase>validate</phase>
             <goals>
               <goal>checkstyle</goal>
             </goals>
           </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 </project>
diff --git a/elasticsearch/pom.xml b/elasticsearch/pom.xml
index 8293fa82..359d2c08 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/pom.xml
+++ b/elasticsearch/pom.xml
@@ -1,60 +1,60 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <parent>
         <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
         <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-        <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
         <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
     </parent>
 
     <artifactId>elasticsearch-binding</artifactId>
     <name>Elasticsearch Binding</name>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
     <properties>
         <elasticsearch-version>2.3.1</elasticsearch-version>
     </properties>
     <dependencies>
         <dependency>
         <!-- jna is supported in ES and will be used when provided 
              otherwise a fallback is used -->    
             <groupId>net.java.dev.jna</groupId>
             <artifactId>jna</artifactId>
             <version>4.1.0</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
             <artifactId>core</artifactId>
             <version>${project.version}</version>
             <scope>provided</scope>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.elasticsearch</groupId>
             <artifactId>elasticsearch</artifactId>
             <version>${elasticsearch-version}</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.testng</groupId>
             <artifactId>testng</artifactId>
             <version>6.1.1</version>
             <scope>test</scope>
         </dependency>
     </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/geode/pom.xml b/geode/pom.xml
index e03b5391..514d71bc 100644
--- a/geode/pom.xml
+++ b/geode/pom.xml
@@ -1,74 +1,74 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
   
   <artifactId>geode-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Geode DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <properties>
     <checkstyle.failOnViolation>false</checkstyle.failOnViolation>
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.geode</groupId>
       <artifactId>geode-core</artifactId>
       <version>${geode.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <build>
     <plugins>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>2.15</version>
         <configuration>
           <consoleOutput>true</consoleOutput>
           <configLocation>../checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
           <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
           <failsOnError>true</failsOnError>
         </configuration>
         <executions>
           <execution>
             <id>validate</id>
             <phase>validate</phase>
             <goals>
               <goal>checkstyle</goal>
             </goals>
           </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
   
 </project>
diff --git a/googlebigtable/pom.xml b/googlebigtable/pom.xml
index 5e70aa44..598326d4 100644
--- a/googlebigtable/pom.xml
+++ b/googlebigtable/pom.xml
@@ -1,47 +1,47 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
 Copyright (c) 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent/</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>googlebigtable-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Google Cloud Bigtable Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.google.cloud.bigtable</groupId>
       <artifactId>bigtable-hbase-1.0</artifactId>
       <version>${googlebigtable.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
     
   </dependencies>
 </project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/googledatastore/pom.xml b/googledatastore/pom.xml
index 3d636a2d..ea969b87 100644
--- a/googledatastore/pom.xml
+++ b/googledatastore/pom.xml
@@ -1,50 +1,50 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2015-2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>googledatastore-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Google Cloud Datastore Binding</name>
   <url>https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/google-cloud-datastore</url>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.google.cloud.datastore</groupId>
       <artifactId>datastore-v1beta3-proto-client</artifactId>
       <version>1.0.0-beta.1</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>log4j</groupId>
       <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
       <version>1.2.17</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/hbase094/pom.xml b/hbase094/pom.xml
index ca7d4c60..7ddef218 100644
--- a/hbase094/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase094/pom.xml
@@ -1,68 +1,68 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent/</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>hbase094-binding</artifactId>
   <name>HBase 0.94.x DB Binding</name>
 
   <dependencies>
     <!-- This binding is identical to the HBase 0.98, other than dependencies. -->
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.hbase</groupId>
       <artifactId>hbase</artifactId>
       <version>${hbase094.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
       <artifactId>hadoop-core</artifactId>
       <version>1.0.4</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>hbase098-binding</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <exclusions>
       <!-- HBase 0.98.0 depends on hbase-client, HBase 0.94.0 on hbase.
            Override all dependencies. -->
         <exclusion>
           <groupId>*</groupId>
           <artifactId>*</artifactId>
         </exclusion>
       </exclusions>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
       <artifactId>slf4j-simple</artifactId>
       <version>1.7.12</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/hbase098/pom.xml b/hbase098/pom.xml
index 29600f7f..b052397b 100644
--- a/hbase098/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase098/pom.xml
@@ -1,48 +1,48 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent/</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>hbase098-binding</artifactId>
   <name>HBase 0.98.x DB Binding</name>
 
   <properties>
     <checkstyle.failOnViolation>false</checkstyle.failOnViolation>
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.hbase</groupId>
       <artifactId>hbase-client</artifactId>
       <version>${hbase098.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/hbase10/pom.xml b/hbase10/pom.xml
index 3f6bec07..91df9856 100644
--- a/hbase10/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase10/pom.xml
@@ -1,56 +1,56 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent/</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>hbase10-binding</artifactId>
   <name>HBase 1.0 DB Binding</name>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.hbase</groupId>
       <artifactId>hbase-client</artifactId>
       <version>${hbase10.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
       <version>4.12</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.hbase</groupId>
       <artifactId>hbase-testing-util</artifactId>
       <version>${hbase10.version}</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/hypertable/pom.xml b/hypertable/pom.xml
index 6c457f72..2e31d8f9 100644
--- a/hypertable/pom.xml
+++ b/hypertable/pom.xml
@@ -1,85 +1,85 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
   
   <artifactId>hypertable-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Hypertable DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <properties>
     <checkstyle.failOnViolation>false</checkstyle.failOnViolation>
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.thrift</groupId>
       <artifactId>libthrift</artifactId>
       <version>${thrift.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.hypertable</groupId>
       <artifactId>hypertable</artifactId>
       <version>${hypertable.version}</version>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <build>
     <plugins>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>2.15</version>
         <configuration>
           <consoleOutput>true</consoleOutput>
           <configLocation>../checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
           <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
           <failsOnError>true</failsOnError>
         </configuration>
         <executions>
           <execution>
             <id>validate</id>
             <phase>validate</phase>
             <goals>
               <goal>checkstyle</goal>
             </goals>
           </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 
   <repositories>
     <repository>
       <id>clojars.org</id>
       <url>http://clojars.org/repo</url>
     </repository>
   </repositories>
 </project>
diff --git a/infinispan/pom.xml b/infinispan/pom.xml
index 943b1937..0669b445 100644
--- a/infinispan/pom.xml
+++ b/infinispan/pom.xml
@@ -1,78 +1,78 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
   
   <artifactId>infinispan-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Infinispan DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <properties>
     <checkstyle.failOnViolation>false</checkstyle.failOnViolation>
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.infinispan</groupId>
       <artifactId>infinispan-client-hotrod</artifactId>
       <version>${infinispan.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.infinispan</groupId>
       <artifactId>infinispan-core</artifactId>
       <version>${infinispan.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <build>
     <plugins>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>2.15</version>
         <configuration>
           <consoleOutput>true</consoleOutput>
           <configLocation>../checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
           <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
           <failsOnError>true</failsOnError>
         </configuration>
         <executions>
           <execution>
             <id>validate</id>
             <phase>validate</phase>
             <goals>
               <goal>checkstyle</goal>
             </goals>
           </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 </project>
diff --git a/jdbc/pom.xml b/jdbc/pom.xml
index 67770336..8a10bd7e 100644
--- a/jdbc/pom.xml
+++ b/jdbc/pom.xml
@@ -1,57 +1,57 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
   
   <artifactId>jdbc-binding</artifactId>
   <name>JDBC DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.openjpa</groupId>
       <artifactId>openjpa-jdbc</artifactId>
       <version>${openjpa.jdbc.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
       <version>4.12</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.hsqldb</groupId>
       <artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
       <version>2.3.3</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/kudu/pom.xml b/kudu/pom.xml
index f0d3088c..cc64d149 100644
--- a/kudu/pom.xml
+++ b/kudu/pom.xml
@@ -1,58 +1,58 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
 Copyright (c) 2015-2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>kudu-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Kudu DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.kududb</groupId>
       <artifactId>kudu-client</artifactId>
       <version>${kudu.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <repositories>
     <repository>
       <releases>
         <enabled>true</enabled>
       </releases>
       <snapshots>
         <enabled>false</enabled>
       </snapshots>
       <id>cloudera-repo</id>
       <name>Cloudera Releases</name>
       <url>https://repository.cloudera.com/artifactory/cloudera-repos</url>
     </repository>
   </repositories>
 </project>
diff --git a/make_rc.sh b/make_rc.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..66ed5795
--- /dev/null
+++ b/make_rc.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# Script to help generate a new release candidate.  This assumes that
+# the master branch is checked out and the working directory is clean.
+#
+# To confirm changes before checking them in, replace the -A option
+# to "git add" below with -p.
+#
+
+# Update the following two variables before running this script.
+VERSION=0.9.0
+RC_NUM=1
+
+RC_NUMBER=RC${RC_NUM}
+NEXT_RC_NUMBER=RC$((${RC_NUM} + 1))
+RC_VERSION=${VERSION}-${RC_NUMBER}
+
+git checkout ${VERSION}-staging
+
+# Modify version string from SNAPSHOT to RC.
+test $RC_NUM = 1 && FROM=${VERSION}-SNAPSHOT || FROM=${RC_VERSION}-SNAPSHOT
+TO=$RC_VERSION
+
+FILES="`grep -rl -- -SNAPSHOT *`"
+
+echo "$FILES" | xargs sed -i "s/$FROM/$TO/"
+git add -A
+git commit -m "[release] mark ${VERSION} ${RC_NUMBER}"
+
+# Now create a tag that we can reference on GitHub.
+git tag $RC_VERSION
+
+# Modify version string from RC to the next RC snapshot.  Now fixes
+# that come in during testing can be picked back here for files that
+# need updating.
+FROM=$RC_VERSION
+TO=${VERSION}-${NEXT_RC_NUMBER}-SNAPSHOT
+echo "$FILES" | xargs sed -i "s/$FROM/$TO/"
+git add -A
+git commit -m "[release] update version for ${NEXT_RC_NUMBER}"
+
+# Finally push all of this up to GitHub.
+git push origin ${VERSION}-staging $RC_VERSION
diff --git a/mapkeeper/pom.xml b/mapkeeper/pom.xml
index 6fac3795..1bf66d12 100644
--- a/mapkeeper/pom.xml
+++ b/mapkeeper/pom.xml
@@ -1,52 +1,52 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
   
   <artifactId>mapkeeper-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Mapkeeper DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.yahoo.mapkeeper</groupId>
        <artifactId>mapkeeper</artifactId>
        <version>${mapkeeper.version}</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
        <artifactId>core</artifactId>
        <version>${project.version}</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
      </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <repositories>
     <repository>
       <id>mapkeeper-releases</id>
       <url>https://raw.github.com/m1ch1/m1ch1-mvn-repo/master/releases</url>
     </repository>
   </repositories>	
 
 </project>
diff --git a/memcached/pom.xml b/memcached/pom.xml
index 10bcbbe9..2609fda0 100644
--- a/memcached/pom.xml
+++ b/memcached/pom.xml
@@ -1,78 +1,78 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2014-2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>memcached-binding</artifactId>
   <name>memcached binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>log4j</groupId>
       <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
       <version>1.2.17</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
       <artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId>
       <version>1.9.13</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>net.spy</groupId>
       <artifactId>spymemcached</artifactId>
       <version>2.11.4</version>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
   <build>
     <plugins>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>${maven.assembly.version}</version>
         <configuration>
           <descriptorRefs>
             <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
           </descriptorRefs>
           <appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
         </configuration>
         <executions>
           <execution>
             <phase>package</phase>
             <goals>
               <goal>single</goal>
             </goals>
           </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 </project>
diff --git a/mongodb/pom.xml b/mongodb/pom.xml
index f510d19a..58a1a13d 100644
--- a/mongodb/pom.xml
+++ b/mongodb/pom.xml
@@ -1,82 +1,82 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>mongodb-binding</artifactId>
   <name>MongoDB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.mongodb</groupId>
       <artifactId>mongo-java-driver</artifactId>
       <version>${mongodb.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.allanbank</groupId>
       <artifactId>mongodb-async-driver</artifactId>
       <version>${mongodb.async.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
       <artifactId>logback-classic</artifactId>
       <version>1.1.2</version>
       <scope>runtime</scope>
     </dependency>
 
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
       <version>4.12</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <repositories>
     <repository>
       <releases>
         <enabled>true</enabled>
         <updatePolicy>always</updatePolicy>
         <checksumPolicy>warn</checksumPolicy>
       </releases>
       <snapshots>
         <enabled>false</enabled>
         <updatePolicy>never</updatePolicy>
         <checksumPolicy>fail</checksumPolicy>
       </snapshots>
       <id>allanbank</id>
       <name>Allanbank Releases</name>
       <url>http://www.allanbank.com/repo/</url>
       <layout>default</layout>
     </repository>
   </repositories>
 </project>
diff --git a/nosqldb/pom.xml b/nosqldb/pom.xml
index e2823102..627b04cf 100644
--- a/nosqldb/pom.xml
+++ b/nosqldb/pom.xml
@@ -1,45 +1,45 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
   
   <artifactId>nosqldb-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Oracle NoSQL Database Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.oracle.kv</groupId>
       <artifactId>oracle-nosql-client</artifactId>
       <version>3.0.5</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/orientdb/pom.xml b/orientdb/pom.xml
index db83a942..be475a5b 100644
--- a/orientdb/pom.xml
+++ b/orientdb/pom.xml
@@ -1,62 +1,62 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>orientdb-binding</artifactId>
   <name>OrientDB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
   <repositories>
     <repository>
       <id>sonatype-nexus-snapshots</id>
       <name>Sonatype Nexus Snapshots</name>
       <url>https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots</url>
     </repository>
   </repositories>
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.orientechnologies</groupId>
       <artifactId>orientdb-client</artifactId>
       <version>${orientdb.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
       <version>4.12</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
       <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
       <version>1.7.10</version>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 5bf26750..bd9d9ab3 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1,178 +1,178 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
   <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
   <artifactId>root</artifactId>
-  <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+  <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
   <packaging>pom</packaging>
 
   <name>YCSB Root</name>
 
   <description>
     This is the top level project that builds, packages the core and all the DB bindings for YCSB infrastructure.
   </description>
 
   <scm>
     <connection>scm:git:git://github.com/brianfrankcooper/YCSB.git</connection>
     <tag>master</tag>
     <url>https://github.com/brianfrankcooper/YCSB</url>
   </scm>
   <dependencyManagement>
     <dependencies>
       <dependency>
         <groupId>checkstyle</groupId>
         <artifactId>checkstyle</artifactId>
         <version>5.0</version>
       </dependency>
       <dependency>
         <groupId>org.jdom</groupId>
         <artifactId>jdom</artifactId>
         <version>1.1</version>
       </dependency>
       <dependency>
         <groupId>com.google.collections</groupId>
         <artifactId>google-collections</artifactId>
         <version>1.0</version>
       </dependency>
       <!--
       Nail down slf4j version to 1.6 so that it defaults to no-op logger.
       http://www.slf4j.org/codes.html#StaticLoggerBinder
       -->
       <dependency>
         <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
         <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
         <version>1.6.4</version>
       </dependency>
     </dependencies>
   </dependencyManagement>
 
   <!-- Properties Management -->
   <properties>
     <maven.assembly.version>2.5.5</maven.assembly.version>
     <maven.dependency.version>2.10</maven.dependency.version>
     <asynchbase.version>1.7.1</asynchbase.version>
     <hbase094.version>0.94.27</hbase094.version>
     <hbase098.version>0.98.14-hadoop2</hbase098.version>
     <hbase10.version>1.0.2</hbase10.version>
     <accumulo.version>1.6.0</accumulo.version>
     <cassandra.version>1.2.9</cassandra.version>
     <cassandra.cql.version>1.0.3</cassandra.cql.version>
     <cassandra2.cql.version>3.0.0</cassandra2.cql.version>
     <geode.version>1.0.0-incubating.M2</geode.version>
     <googlebigtable.version>0.2.3</googlebigtable.version>
     <infinispan.version>7.2.2.Final</infinispan.version>
     <kudu.version>0.8.0</kudu.version>
     <openjpa.jdbc.version>2.1.1</openjpa.jdbc.version>
     <!--<mapkeeper.version>1.0</mapkeeper.version>-->
     <mongodb.version>3.0.3</mongodb.version>
     <mongodb.async.version>2.0.1</mongodb.async.version>
     <orientdb.version>2.1.8</orientdb.version>
     <redis.version>2.0.0</redis.version>
     <s3.version>1.10.20</s3.version>
     <voldemort.version>0.81</voldemort.version>
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
     <thrift.version>0.8.0</thrift.version>
     <hypertable.version>0.9.5.6</hypertable.version>
     <couchbase.version>1.4.10</couchbase.version>
     <couchbase2.version>2.2.6</couchbase2.version>
     <tarantool.version>1.6.5</tarantool.version>
     <riak.version>2.0.5</riak.version>
     <aerospike.version>3.1.2</aerospike.version>
     <solr.version>5.4.0</solr.version>
   </properties>
 
   <modules>
     <!-- our internals -->
     <module>core</module>
     <module>binding-parent</module>
     <!-- all the datastore bindings, lex sorted please -->
     <module>accumulo</module>
     <module>aerospike</module>
     <module>asynchbase</module>
     <module>cassandra</module>
     <module>cassandra2</module>
     <module>couchbase</module>
     <module>couchbase2</module>
     <module>distribution</module>
     <module>dynamodb</module>
     <module>elasticsearch</module>
     <module>geode</module>
     <module>googlebigtable</module>
     <module>googledatastore</module>
     <module>hbase094</module>
     <module>hbase098</module>
     <module>hbase10</module>
     <module>hypertable</module>
     <module>infinispan</module>
     <module>jdbc</module>
     <module>kudu</module>
     <!--<module>mapkeeper</module>-->
     <module>memcached</module>
     <module>mongodb</module>
     <module>nosqldb</module>
     <module>orientdb</module>
     <module>redis</module>
     <module>riak</module>
     <module>s3</module>
     <module>solr</module>
     <module>tarantool</module>
     <!--<module>voldemort</module>-->
   </modules>
 
   <build>
     <pluginManagement>
       <plugins>
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
           <version>2.15</version>
         </plugin>
       </plugins>
     </pluginManagement>
     <plugins>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>3.3</version>
         <configuration>
           <source>1.7</source>
           <target>1.7</target>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
         <executions>
           <execution>
             <id>validate</id>
             <phase>validate</phase>
             <goals>
               <goal>check</goal>
             </goals>
             <configuration>
               <configLocation>checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
             </configuration>
           </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 </project>
diff --git a/redis/pom.xml b/redis/pom.xml
index 65dbc50b..cb043968 100644
--- a/redis/pom.xml
+++ b/redis/pom.xml
@@ -1,45 +1,45 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
   
   <artifactId>redis-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Redis DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>redis.clients</groupId>
       <artifactId>jedis</artifactId>
       <version>${redis.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/riak/pom.xml b/riak/pom.xml
index da335adf..a98cc738 100644
--- a/riak/pom.xml
+++ b/riak/pom.xml
@@ -1,59 +1,59 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
 Copyright (c) 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 Copyright 2014 Basho Technologies, Inc.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
          xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>riak-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Riak KV Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.basho.riak</groupId>
       <artifactId>riak-client</artifactId>
       <version>2.0.5</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.google.collections</groupId>
       <artifactId>google-collections</artifactId>
       <version>1.0</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
       <version>4.12</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
 </project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/s3/pom.xml b/s3/pom.xml
index d5726a46..fdf032d8 100644
--- a/s3/pom.xml
+++ b/s3/pom.xml
@@ -1,44 +1,44 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2015-2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <parent>
         <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
         <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-        <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
         <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
     </parent>
   
   <artifactId>s3-binding</artifactId>
   <name>S3 Storage Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
 	<groupId>com.amazonaws</groupId>
 	<artifactId>aws-java-sdk-s3</artifactId>
 	<version>${s3.version}</version>
     </dependency>
 
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
             <artifactId>core</artifactId>
             <version>${project.version}</version>
             <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
    </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/solr/pom.xml b/solr/pom.xml
index 8253ea02..43a9cab1 100644
--- a/solr/pom.xml
+++ b/solr/pom.xml
@@ -1,59 +1,59 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you 
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You 
 may obtain a copy of the License at 
 	
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software 
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, 
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or 
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing 
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying 
 LICENSE file. 
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 	xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
 	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 	<parent>
 		<groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
 		<artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-		<version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+		<version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
 		<relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
 	</parent>
 
 	<artifactId>solr-binding</artifactId>
 	<name>Solr Binding</name>
 	<packaging>jar</packaging>
 
 	<dependencies>
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
 			<artifactId>core</artifactId>
 			<version>${project.version}</version>
 			<scope>provided</scope>
 		</dependency>
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>org.apache.solr</groupId>
 			<artifactId>solr-solrj</artifactId>
 			<version>${solr.version}</version>
 		</dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
       <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
       <version>1.7.10</version>
     </dependency>
 
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.solr</groupId>
       <artifactId>solr-test-framework</artifactId>
       <version>${solr.version}</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
 	</dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/tarantool/pom.xml b/tarantool/pom.xml
index acaea4ff..34c92568 100644
--- a/tarantool/pom.xml
+++ b/tarantool/pom.xml
@@ -1,75 +1,75 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
 Copyright (c) 2015-2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
 
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent/</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>tarantool-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Tarantool DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <properties>
     <checkstyle.failOnViolation>false</checkstyle.failOnViolation>
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.tarantool</groupId>
       <artifactId>connector</artifactId>
       <version>${tarantool.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
   <build>
     <plugins>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>2.15</version>
         <configuration>
           <consoleOutput>true</consoleOutput>
           <configLocation>../checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
           <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
           <failsOnError>true</failsOnError>
         </configuration>
         <executions>
           <execution>
             <id>validate</id>
             <phase>validate</phase>
             <goals>
               <goal>checkstyle</goal>
             </goals>
           </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 </project>
diff --git a/voldemort/pom.xml b/voldemort/pom.xml
index f891a65a..e423b710 100644
--- a/voldemort/pom.xml
+++ b/voldemort/pom.xml
@@ -1,51 +1,51 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
 Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
 may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
 may obtain a copy of the License at
 
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
 LICENSE file.
 -->
 
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
 	
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>binding-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.9.0-RC1</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
    </parent>
   
    <artifactId>voldemort-binding</artifactId>
    <name>Voldemort DB Binding</name>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>
 	
    <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>voldemort</groupId>
        <artifactId>voldemort</artifactId>
        <version>${voldemort.version}</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>log4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
        <version>1.2.16</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
        <artifactId>core</artifactId>
        <version>${project.version}</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
      </dependency>
    </dependencies>
 </project>