Nexus is a Maven artifacts repository.

When you build your project with Maven, you generate artifacts as a result of you build process (jar, war, zip, etc). These artifacts are libraries that can be shared among the developers that use them.

Some of your libraries will be provided by third part developers, like Apache libraries, for example. The Maven’s Central Repository is a repository that stores the majority of open source libraries available. However, when you are developing your project, it is important to use your own repository to store your local artifacts and also to keep a copy of the Maven central repository and other libraries repositories you may get your libraries from. This way, you can increase your response time and decrease your dependency from external repositories.

Nexus is a Maven repository that can either store Maven artifacts locally created as synchronize your local repository with several external repositories, like the Maven’s Central Repository.

Nexus uses the file system to store their artifacts, and this makes it fast and reliable. It is also possible to password protect parts of the repository to guarantee that only authorized developers will have access to your project artifacts.

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