Many Eclipse projects have a common theme: an extensible platform with exemplary tools. The Eclipse provisioning platform, p2, is no different. While the update mechanism in Eclipse is the most notable p2 solution, p2 is actually architected as highly extensible platform on which other provisioning solutions can be built.
The Yoxos distribution -- which has been shipping Eclipse content since 2005 -- is built entirely on p2. In 2011, Yoxos pulled together more than 30,000 Eclipse plug-ins, and served over 500,000 request using a variety of Amazon Cloud Technologies.