diff --git a/spring-boot-dependencies/pom.xml b/spring-boot-dependencies/pom.xml
index 9c581d0237..1a66fa1c4c 100644
--- a/spring-boot-dependencies/pom.xml
+++ b/spring-boot-dependencies/pom.xml
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@
 		<activemq.version>5.4.0</activemq.version>
 		<aspectj.version>1.7.3</aspectj.version>
 		<commons-dbcp.version>1.4</commons-dbcp.version>
-		<commons-httpclient.version>3.1</commons-httpclient.version>
 		<gradle.version>1.6</gradle.version>
 		<groovy.version>2.1.6</groovy.version>
 		<h2.version>1.3.172</h2.version>
@@ -18,6 +17,8 @@
 		<hibernate-entitymanager.version>4.2.1.Final</hibernate-entitymanager.version>
 		<hibernate-jpa-api.version>1.0.1.Final</hibernate-jpa-api.version>
 		<hibernate-validator.version>4.3.1.Final</hibernate-validator.version>
+		<httpclient.version>4.3.1</httpclient.version>
+		<httpasyncclient.version>4.0</httpasyncclient.version>
 		<hsqldb.version>2.2.9</hsqldb.version>
 		<jackson.version>2.2.2</jackson.version>
 		<jetty.version>8.1.9.v20130131</jetty.version>
@@ -79,11 +80,6 @@
 				<artifactId>commons-dbcp</artifactId>
 				<version>${commons-dbcp.version}</version>
 			</dependency>
-			<dependency>
-				<groupId>commons-httpclient</groupId>
-				<artifactId>commons-httpclient</artifactId>
-				<version>${commons-httpclient.version}</version>
-			</dependency>
 			<dependency>
 				<groupId>com.lambdaworks</groupId>
 				<artifactId>lettuce</artifactId>
@@ -134,6 +130,16 @@
 				<artifactId>activemq-pool</artifactId>
 				<version>${activemq.version}</version>
 			</dependency>
+			<dependency>
+				<groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
+				<artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
+				<version>${httpclient.version}</version>
+			</dependency>
+			<dependency>
+				<groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
+				<artifactId>httpasyncclient</artifactId>
+				<version>${httpasyncclient.version}</version>
+			</dependency>
 			<dependency>
 				<groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
 				<artifactId>tomcat-embed-core</artifactId>
diff --git a/spring-boot/pom.xml b/spring-boot/pom.xml
index 2eefd2e0d5..22022b9765 100644
--- a/spring-boot/pom.xml
+++ b/spring-boot/pom.xml
@@ -91,8 +91,13 @@
 		</dependency>
 		<!-- Test -->
 		<dependency>
-			<groupId>commons-httpclient</groupId>
-			<artifactId>commons-httpclient</artifactId>
+			<groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
+			<artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
+			<scope>test</scope>
+		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
+			<artifactId>httpasyncclient</artifactId>
 			<scope>test</scope>
 		</dependency>
 		<dependency>
diff --git a/spring-boot/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/AbstractEmbeddedServletContainerFactoryTests.java b/spring-boot/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/AbstractEmbeddedServletContainerFactoryTests.java
index 871259b4a9..e572cbcbd9 100644
--- a/spring-boot/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/AbstractEmbeddedServletContainerFactoryTests.java
+++ b/spring-boot/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/AbstractEmbeddedServletContainerFactoryTests.java
@@ -24,17 +24,14 @@ import java.net.URISyntaxException;
 import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Date;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 
 import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
 import javax.servlet.ServletException;
 import javax.servlet.ServletRequest;
 import javax.servlet.ServletResponse;
 
-import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient;
-import org.apache.commons.httpclient.MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager;
-import org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.GetMethod;
 import org.junit.After;
-import org.junit.Ignore;
 import org.junit.Rule;
 import org.junit.Test;
 import org.junit.rules.ExpectedException;
@@ -44,9 +41,11 @@ import org.springframework.http.HttpMethod;
 import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
 import org.springframework.http.client.ClientHttpRequest;
 import org.springframework.http.client.ClientHttpResponse;
-import org.springframework.http.client.SimpleClientHttpRequestFactory;
+import org.springframework.http.client.HttpComponentsAsyncClientHttpRequestFactory;
+import org.springframework.http.client.HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory;
 import org.springframework.util.FileCopyUtils;
 import org.springframework.util.StreamUtils;
+import org.springframework.util.concurrent.ListenableFuture;
 
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.notNullValue;
@@ -115,25 +114,26 @@ public abstract class AbstractEmbeddedServletContainerFactoryTests {
 	}
 
 	@Test
-	@Ignore
 	public void restartWithKeepAlive() throws Exception {
 		ConfigurableEmbeddedServletContainerFactory factory = getFactory();
 		this.container = factory
 				.getEmbeddedServletContainer(exampleServletRegistration());
 		this.container.start();
-		MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager connectionManager = new MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager();
-		HttpClient client = new HttpClient(connectionManager);
-		GetMethod get1 = new GetMethod("http://localhost:8080/hello");
-		assertThat(client.executeMethod(get1), equalTo(200));
-		get1.releaseConnection();
+		HttpComponentsAsyncClientHttpRequestFactory clientHttpRequestFactory = new HttpComponentsAsyncClientHttpRequestFactory();
+		ListenableFuture<ClientHttpResponse> response1 = clientHttpRequestFactory
+				.createAsyncRequest(new URI("http://localhost:8080/hello"),
+						HttpMethod.GET).executeAsync();
+		assertThat(response1.get(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS).getRawStatusCode(), equalTo(200));
 
 		this.container.stop();
 		this.container = factory
 				.getEmbeddedServletContainer(exampleServletRegistration());
+		this.container.start();
 
-		GetMethod get2 = new GetMethod("http://localhost:8080/hello");
-		assertThat(client.executeMethod(get2), equalTo(200));
-		get2.releaseConnection();
+		ListenableFuture<ClientHttpResponse> response2 = clientHttpRequestFactory
+				.createAsyncRequest(new URI("http://localhost:8080/hello"),
+						HttpMethod.GET).executeAsync();
+		assertThat(response2.get(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS).getRawStatusCode(), equalTo(200));
 	}
 
 	@Test
@@ -267,9 +267,6 @@ public abstract class AbstractEmbeddedServletContainerFactoryTests {
 	}
 
 	@Test
-	@Ignore
-	// FIXME: how to test an error response (maybe java.net.HttpUrlConnection isn't going
-	// to cut it)
 	public void errorPage() throws Exception {
 		ConfigurableEmbeddedServletContainerFactory factory = getFactory();
 		factory.addErrorPages(new ErrorPage(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR, "/hello"));
@@ -292,7 +289,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractEmbeddedServletContainerFactoryTests {
 
 	protected ClientHttpResponse getClientResponse(String url) throws IOException,
 			URISyntaxException {
-		SimpleClientHttpRequestFactory clientHttpRequestFactory = new SimpleClientHttpRequestFactory();
+		HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory clientHttpRequestFactory = new HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory();
 		ClientHttpRequest request = clientHttpRequestFactory.createRequest(new URI(url),
 				HttpMethod.GET);
 		ClientHttpResponse response = request.execute();