diff --git a/accumulo/pom.xml b/accumulo/pom.xml
index be8b9409..93faf584 100644
--- a/accumulo/pom.xml
+++ b/accumulo/pom.xml
@@ -1,105 +1,83 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2011 YCSB++ project, 2014 - 2015 YCSB contributors.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
-    <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>
     <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 7487fb00..37cab3e2 100644
--- a/aerospike/pom.xml
+++ b/aerospike/pom.xml
@@ -1,69 +1,45 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
-  <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/binding-parent/pom.xml b/binding-parent/pom.xml
index dde0827f..afb72d7b 100644
--- a/binding-parent/pom.xml
+++ b/binding-parent/pom.xml
@@ -1,120 +1,132 @@
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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 7fd66c0f..ef4f20b4 100644
--- a/cassandra/pom.xml
+++ b/cassandra/pom.xml
@@ -1,75 +1,51 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
-  <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/cassandra2/pom.xml b/cassandra2/pom.xml
index 8f3b743a..bbf4cd24 100644
--- a/cassandra2/pom.xml
+++ b/cassandra2/pom.xml
@@ -1,84 +1,60 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 
 <!--
-Copyright (c) 2012-2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>cassandra2-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Cassandra 2.1+ DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <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-shaded</artifactId>
       <version>2.1.9.2</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
       <version>4.12</version>
       <scope>test</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/checkstyle.xml b/checkstyle.xml
index e18cb5b4..2197b022 100644
--- a/checkstyle.xml
+++ b/checkstyle.xml
@@ -1,188 +1,188 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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.
 -->
 
 <!DOCTYPE module PUBLIC
     "-//Puppy Crawl//DTD Check Configuration 1.2//EN"
     "http://www.puppycrawl.com/dtds/configuration_1_2.dtd">
 
 <!--
 
   Checkstyle configuration for Hadoop that is based on the sun_checks.xml file
   that is bundled with Checkstyle and includes checks for:
 
     - the Java Language Specification at
       http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/second_edition/html/index.html
 
     - the Sun Code Conventions at http://java.sun.com/docs/codeconv/
 
     - the Javadoc guidelines at
       http://java.sun.com/j2se/javadoc/writingdoccomments/index.html
 
     - the JDK Api documentation http://java.sun.com/j2se/docs/api/index.html
 
     - some best practices
 
   Checkstyle is very configurable. Be sure to read the documentation at
   http://checkstyle.sf.net (or in your downloaded distribution).
 
   Most Checks are configurable, be sure to consult the documentation.
 
   To completely disable a check, just comment it out or delete it from the file.
 
   Finally, it is worth reading the documentation.
 
 -->
 
 <module name="Checker">
 
     <!-- Checks that a package.html file exists for each package.     -->
     <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_javadoc.html#PackageHtml -->
     <module name="JavadocPackage"/>
 
     <!-- Checks whether files end with a new line.                        -->
     <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_misc.html#NewlineAtEndOfFile -->
     <!-- module name="NewlineAtEndOfFile"/-->
 
     <!-- Checks that property files contain the same keys.         -->
     <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_misc.html#Translation -->
     <module name="Translation"/>
 
     <module name="FileLength"/>
     <module name="FileTabCharacter"/>
 
     <module name="TreeWalker">
 
         <!-- Checks for Javadoc comments.                     -->
         <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_javadoc.html -->
         <module name="JavadocType">
           <property name="scope" value="public"/>
           <property name="allowMissingParamTags" value="true"/>
         </module>
         <module name="JavadocStyle"/>
 
         <!-- Checks for Naming Conventions.                  -->
         <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_naming.html -->
         <module name="ConstantName"/>
         <module name="LocalFinalVariableName"/>
         <module name="LocalVariableName"/>
         <module name="MemberName"/>
         <module name="MethodName"/>
         <module name="PackageName"/>
         <module name="ParameterName"/>
         <module name="StaticVariableName"/>
         <module name="TypeName"/>
 
 
         <!-- Checks for Headers                                -->
         <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_header.html   -->
         <!-- <module name="Header">                            -->
             <!-- The follow property value demonstrates the ability     -->
             <!-- to have access to ANT properties. In this case it uses -->
             <!-- the ${basedir} property to allow Checkstyle to be run  -->
             <!-- from any directory within a project. See property      -->
             <!-- expansion,                                             -->
             <!-- http://checkstyle.sf.net/config.html#properties        -->
             <!-- <property                                              -->
             <!--     name="headerFile"                                  -->
             <!--     value="${basedir}/java.header"/>                   -->
         <!-- </module> -->
 
         <!-- Following interprets the header file as regular expressions. -->
         <!-- <module name="RegexpHeader"/>                                -->
 
 
         <!-- Checks for imports                              -->
         <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_import.html -->
         <module name="IllegalImport"/> <!-- defaults to sun.* packages -->
         <module name="RedundantImport"/>
         <module name="UnusedImports"/>
 
 
         <!-- Checks for Size Violations.                    -->
         <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_sizes.html -->
         <module name="LineLength">
             <property name="max" value="120"/>
         </module>
         <module name="MethodLength"/>
         <module name="ParameterNumber"/>
 
 
         <!-- Checks for whitespace                               -->
         <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_whitespace.html -->
         <module name="EmptyForIteratorPad"/>
         <module name="MethodParamPad"/>
         <module name="NoWhitespaceAfter"/>
         <module name="NoWhitespaceBefore"/>
         <module name="ParenPad"/>
         <module name="TypecastParenPad"/>
         <module name="WhitespaceAfter">
 	    	<property name="tokens" value="COMMA, SEMI"/>
 		</module>
 
 
         <!-- Modifier Checks                                    -->
         <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_modifiers.html -->
         <module name="ModifierOrder"/>
         <module name="RedundantModifier"/>
 
 
         <!-- Checks for blocks. You know, those {}'s         -->
         <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_blocks.html -->
         <module name="AvoidNestedBlocks"/>
         <module name="EmptyBlock"/>
         <module name="LeftCurly"/>
         <module name="NeedBraces"/>
         <module name="RightCurly"/>
 
 
         <!-- Checks for common coding problems               -->
         <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_coding.html -->
         <!-- module name="AvoidInlineConditionals"/-->
         <module name="EmptyStatement"/>
         <module name="EqualsHashCode"/>
         <module name="HiddenField">
           <property name="ignoreConstructorParameter" value="true"/>
         </module>
         <module name="IllegalInstantiation"/>
         <module name="InnerAssignment"/>
         <module name="MissingSwitchDefault"/>
         <module name="RedundantThrows"/>
         <module name="SimplifyBooleanExpression"/>
         <module name="SimplifyBooleanReturn"/>
 
         <!-- Checks for class design                         -->
         <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_design.html -->
         <module name="FinalClass"/>
         <module name="HideUtilityClassConstructor"/>
         <module name="InterfaceIsType"/>
         <module name="VisibilityModifier"/>
 
 
         <!-- Miscellaneous other checks.                   -->
         <!-- See http://checkstyle.sf.net/config_misc.html -->
         <module name="ArrayTypeStyle"/>
         <module name="Indentation">
             <property name="basicOffset" value="2" />
             <property name="caseIndent" value="0" />
         </module> 
-        <module name="TodoComment"/>
+        <!-- <module name="TodoComment"/> -->
         <module name="UpperEll"/>
 
     </module>
 
 </module>
diff --git a/core/pom.xml b/core/pom.xml
index 33fe500f..5e5da144 100644
--- a/core/pom.xml
+++ b/core/pom.xml
@@ -1,81 +1,82 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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.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>
     <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 ff02debd..a7d231a7 100644
--- a/couchbase/pom.xml
+++ b/couchbase/pom.xml
@@ -1,62 +1,66 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
         <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
     </parent>
 
     <artifactId>couchbase-binding</artifactId>
     <name>Couchbase Binding</name>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
+    <properties>
+      <checkstyle.failOnViolation>false</checkstyle.failOnViolation>
+    </properties>
+
     <dependencies>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>couchbase</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>
 
     <repositories>
         <repository>
             <id>couchbase</id>
             <name>Couchbase Maven Repository</name>
             <url>http://files.couchbase.com/maven2/</url>
         </repository>
     </repositories>
 </project>
diff --git a/dynamodb/pom.xml b/dynamodb/pom.xml
index bfe174c6..acde4cb0 100644
--- a/dynamodb/pom.xml
+++ b/dynamodb/pom.xml
@@ -1,49 +1,53 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
 </project>
diff --git a/elasticsearch/pom.xml b/elasticsearch/pom.xml
index da9975fc..49e3d96e 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/pom.xml
+++ b/elasticsearch/pom.xml
@@ -1,84 +1,60 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
         <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
     </parent>
 
     <artifactId>elasticsearch-binding</artifactId>
     <name>ElasticSearch Binding</name>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
     <properties>
         <elasticsearch-version>2.1.1</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>
-    <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/gemfire/pom.xml b/gemfire/pom.xml
index 2dadf7ad..3aa417ee 100644
--- a/gemfire/pom.xml
+++ b/gemfire/pom.xml
@@ -1,52 +1,56 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
     <relativePath>../binding-parent</relativePath>
   </parent>
   
   <artifactId>gemfire-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Gemfire DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
+  <properties>
+    <checkstyle.failOnViolation>false</checkstyle.failOnViolation>
+  </properties>
+
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.gemstone.gemfire</groupId>
       <artifactId>gemfire</artifactId>
       <version>${gemfire.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.yahoo.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   
   <repositories>
     <repository>
       <id>gemstone</id>
       <url>http://dist.gemstone.com.s3.amazonaws.com/maven/release</url>
     </repository>
   </repositories>	
 </project>
diff --git a/googledatastore/pom.xml b/googledatastore/pom.xml
index fd152428..4618a605 100644
--- a/googledatastore/pom.xml
+++ b/googledatastore/pom.xml
@@ -1,73 +1,50 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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.apis</groupId>
       <artifactId>google-api-services-datastore-protobuf</artifactId>
       <version>v1beta2-rev1-3.0.2</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>false</failsOnError>
-        </configuration>
-        <executions>
-          <execution>
-            <id>validate</id>
-            <phase>validate</phase>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>checkstyle</goal>
-            </goals>
-          </execution>
-        </executions>
-      </plugin>
-    </plugins>
-  </build>
 </project>
diff --git a/hbase098/pom.xml b/hbase098/pom.xml
index 5fa53085..465189ab 100644
--- a/hbase098/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase098/pom.xml
@@ -1,44 +1,48 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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 84a77384..c3e6cdc6 100644
--- a/hbase10/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase10/pom.xml
@@ -1,80 +1,56 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
-  <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/hypertable/pom.xml b/hypertable/pom.xml
index 13ccd004..8c41f068 100644
--- a/hypertable/pom.xml
+++ b/hypertable/pom.xml
@@ -1,57 +1,61 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
 
   <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 efb81120..bb75caa1 100644
--- a/infinispan/pom.xml
+++ b/infinispan/pom.xml
@@ -1,50 +1,54 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
 </project>
diff --git a/jdbc/pom.xml b/jdbc/pom.xml
index 39588bf1..2c8337ba 100644
--- a/jdbc/pom.xml
+++ b/jdbc/pom.xml
@@ -1,81 +1,57 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
-  <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/kudu/pom.xml b/kudu/pom.xml
index 3faa998c..8e2a8586 100644
--- a/kudu/pom.xml
+++ b/kudu/pom.xml
@@ -1,82 +1,58 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
-Copyright (c) 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
-  <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>
       <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/memcached/pom.xml b/memcached/pom.xml
index 2c0c375d..d1d002ea 100644
--- a/memcached/pom.xml
+++ b/memcached/pom.xml
@@ -1,98 +1,78 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2014-2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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-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>
       <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 cc5a283c..25a6f4ee 100644
--- a/mongodb/pom.xml
+++ b/mongodb/pom.xml
@@ -1,106 +1,82 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
-  <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>
       <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 8be31796..434301fd 100644
--- a/nosqldb/pom.xml
+++ b/nosqldb/pom.xml
@@ -1,69 +1,45 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
-  <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/orientdb/pom.xml b/orientdb/pom.xml
index 407f75a7..79c38873 100644
--- a/orientdb/pom.xml
+++ b/orientdb/pom.xml
@@ -1,86 +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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
-  <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/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 73af18a4..190c30ba 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1,163 +1,170 @@
 <?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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
     <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>2.1.8</cassandra2.cql.version>
     <gemfire.version>8.1.0</gemfire.version>
     <infinispan.version>7.2.2.Final</infinispan.version>
     <kudu.version>0.6.0</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>1.1.8</couchbase.version>
     <tarantool.version>1.6.5</tarantool.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>cassandra</module>
     <module>cassandra2</module>
     <module>couchbase</module>
     <module>distribution</module>
     <module>dynamodb</module>
     <module>elasticsearch</module>
     <module>gemfire</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>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>
-        <version>2.15</version>
-        <configuration>
-          <consoleOutput>true</consoleOutput>
-          <configLocation>checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
-        </configuration>
         <executions>
           <execution>
-          <id>validate</id>
+            <id>validate</id>
             <phase>validate</phase>
             <goals>
-              <goal>checkstyle</goal>
+              <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 6e0b2278..957b4b91 100644
--- a/redis/pom.xml
+++ b/redis/pom.xml
@@ -1,69 +1,45 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
-  <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/s3/pom.xml b/s3/pom.xml
index 2bc53df9..8623a019 100644
--- a/s3/pom.xml
+++ b/s3/pom.xml
@@ -1,68 +1,44 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
-<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/solr/pom.xml b/solr/pom.xml
index dd713854..d25a140b 100644
--- a/solr/pom.xml
+++ b/solr/pom.xml
@@ -1,83 +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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
-	<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/tarantool/pom.xml b/tarantool/pom.xml
index 85f0fe62..11f01419 100644
--- a/tarantool/pom.xml
+++ b/tarantool/pom.xml
@@ -1,46 +1,50 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
-Copyright (c) 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
 </project>
diff --git a/voldemort/pom.xml b/voldemort/pom.xml
index f4b21396..943888e7 100644
--- a/voldemort/pom.xml
+++ b/voldemort/pom.xml
@@ -1,75 +1,51 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- 
-Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+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>0.7.0-SNAPSHOT</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>
-  <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>