What is Spring Boot, and how does it differ from the traditional Spring framework?

Spring Boot is a framework built on top of the traditional Spring framework that aims to simplify the development of production-ready Spring applications. Unlike the traditional Spring framework, Spring Boot eliminates the need for manual configuration by providing defaults and auto-configuration. It also includes embedded servers, which means you can run your Spring application as a standalone JAR file without needing to deploy it on a separate application server.