I've only scratched the surface of the docs, but is there a chance to use the dataSource property -- http://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/3.1.1.RELEASE/javadoc-api/org/springframework/orm/jpa/LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.html#setDataSource(javax.sql.DataSource) -- instead of persistenceUnitName, so we can define the connection pool as a spring bean?