title: How does Spring Data (JPA) relate to JPA persistence providers?
body: <p>I'm trying to wrap my head around JPA and have learned quite a bit. JPA is a java specification and providers implement this spec. I Understand that part. </p>
  
  <p>What I don't understand is how Spring Data comes into the picture. Is Spring Data also a provider like Hibernate or OpenJPA? If not, what is it? How does Spring Data "make things easier"?</p>