diff --git a/flink-dist/pom.xml b/flink-dist/pom.xml
index 7059348a7b78e5..9bf2f2f8859ba6 100644
--- a/flink-dist/pom.xml
+++ b/flink-dist/pom.xml
@@ -117,6 +117,13 @@ under the License.
 			<optional>${flink.markBundledAsOptional}</optional>
 		</dependency>
 
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>org.apache.flink</groupId>
+			<artifactId>flink-statebackend-forst</artifactId>
+			<version>${project.version}</version>
+			<optional>${flink.markBundledAsOptional}</optional>
+		</dependency>
+
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>org.apache.flink</groupId>
 			<artifactId>flink-statebackend-changelog</artifactId>
diff --git a/flink-dist/src/main/resources/META-INF/NOTICE b/flink-dist/src/main/resources/META-INF/NOTICE
index 72512500a6c5e4..bc71c1c33816fe 100644
--- a/flink-dist/src/main/resources/META-INF/NOTICE
+++ b/flink-dist/src/main/resources/META-INF/NOTICE
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ This project bundles the following dependencies under the Apache Software Licens
 - com.google.code.findbugs:jsr305:1.3.9
 - com.twitter:chill-java:0.7.6
 - com.ververica:frocksdbjni:8.10.0-ververica-beta-1.0
+- com.ververica:forstjni:jar:0.1.0-beta
 - commons-cli:commons-cli:1.5.0
 - commons-collections:commons-collections:3.2.2
 - commons-io:commons-io:2.15.1
diff --git a/flink-runtime/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/runtime/state/StateBackendLoader.java b/flink-runtime/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/runtime/state/StateBackendLoader.java
index 0084dba711ac7e..e9278626d5e141 100644
--- a/flink-runtime/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/runtime/state/StateBackendLoader.java
+++ b/flink-runtime/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/runtime/state/StateBackendLoader.java
@@ -62,6 +62,10 @@ public class StateBackendLoader {
     private static final String ROCKSDB_STATE_BACKEND_FACTORY =
             "org.apache.flink.contrib.streaming.state.EmbeddedRocksDBStateBackendFactory";
 
+    /** Used for loading ForStStateBackend. */
+    private static final String FORST_STATE_BACKEND_FACTORY =
+            "org.apache.flink.state.forst.ForStStateBackendFactory";
+
     // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     //  Configuration shortcut names
     // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -77,6 +81,8 @@ public class StateBackendLoader {
     /** The shortcut configuration name for the RocksDB State Backend. */
     public static final String ROCKSDB_STATE_BACKEND_NAME = "rocksdb";
 
+    public static final String FORST_STATE_BACKEND_NAME = "forst";
+
     // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     //  Loading the state backend from a configuration
     // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -144,38 +150,45 @@ public static StateBackend loadStateBackendFromConfig(
             case ROCKSDB_STATE_BACKEND_NAME:
                 factoryClassName = ROCKSDB_STATE_BACKEND_FACTORY;
 
-                // fall through to the 'default' case that uses reflection to load the backend
+                // fall through to the case that uses reflection to load the backend
                 // that way we can keep RocksDB in a separate module
+                break;
 
-            default:
-                if (logger != null) {
-                    logger.info("Loading state backend via factory {}", factoryClassName);
-                }
+            case FORST_STATE_BACKEND_NAME:
+                factoryClassName = FORST_STATE_BACKEND_FACTORY;
 
-                StateBackendFactory<?> factory;
-                try {
-                    @SuppressWarnings("rawtypes")
-                    Class<? extends StateBackendFactory> clazz =
-                            Class.forName(factoryClassName, false, classLoader)
-                                    .asSubclass(StateBackendFactory.class);
-
-                    factory = clazz.newInstance();
-                } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
-                    throw new DynamicCodeLoadingException(
-                            "Cannot find configured state backend factory class: " + backendName,
-                            e);
-                } catch (ClassCastException | InstantiationException | IllegalAccessException e) {
-                    throw new DynamicCodeLoadingException(
-                            "The class configured under '"
-                                    + StateBackendOptions.STATE_BACKEND.key()
-                                    + "' is not a valid state backend factory ("
-                                    + backendName
-                                    + ')',
-                            e);
-                }
+                // fall through to the case that uses reflection to load the backend
+                // that way we can keep ForSt in a separate module
+                break;
+        }
 
-                return factory.createFromConfig(config, classLoader);
+        // The reflection loading path
+        if (logger != null) {
+            logger.info("Loading state backend via factory {}", factoryClassName);
         }
+
+        StateBackendFactory<?> factory;
+        try {
+            @SuppressWarnings("rawtypes")
+            Class<? extends StateBackendFactory> clazz =
+                    Class.forName(factoryClassName, false, classLoader)
+                            .asSubclass(StateBackendFactory.class);
+
+            factory = clazz.newInstance();
+        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
+            throw new DynamicCodeLoadingException(
+                    "Cannot find configured state backend factory class: " + backendName, e);
+        } catch (ClassCastException | InstantiationException | IllegalAccessException e) {
+            throw new DynamicCodeLoadingException(
+                    "The class configured under '"
+                            + StateBackendOptions.STATE_BACKEND.key()
+                            + "' is not a valid state backend factory ("
+                            + backendName
+                            + ')',
+                    e);
+        }
+
+        return factory.createFromConfig(config, classLoader);
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/flink-state-backends/flink-statebackend-forst/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/state/forst/ForStStateBackendFactoryTest.java b/flink-state-backends/flink-statebackend-forst/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/state/forst/ForStStateBackendFactoryTest.java
index effcd2be793dd4..e799f8f85fb05e 100644
--- a/flink-state-backends/flink-statebackend-forst/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/state/forst/ForStStateBackendFactoryTest.java
+++ b/flink-state-backends/flink-statebackend-forst/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/state/forst/ForStStateBackendFactoryTest.java
@@ -68,20 +68,27 @@ public void testLoadForStStateBackend() throws Exception {
         final String localDirs = localDir1 + File.pathSeparator + localDir2;
         final boolean incremental = !CheckpointingOptions.INCREMENTAL_CHECKPOINTS.defaultValue();
 
-        // TODO: Support short name of backendKey
-
         final Configuration config1 = new Configuration();
-        config1.setString(backendKey, ForStStateBackendFactory.class.getName());
+        config1.setString(backendKey, "forst");
         config1.set(ForStOptions.LOCAL_DIRECTORIES, localDirs);
         config1.set(CheckpointingOptions.INCREMENTAL_CHECKPOINTS, incremental);
 
+        final Configuration config2 = new Configuration();
+        config2.setString(backendKey, ForStStateBackendFactory.class.getName());
+        config2.set(ForStOptions.LOCAL_DIRECTORIES, localDirs);
+        config2.set(CheckpointingOptions.INCREMENTAL_CHECKPOINTS, incremental);
+
         StateBackend backend1 = StateBackendLoader.loadStateBackendFromConfig(config1, cl, null);
+        StateBackend backend2 = StateBackendLoader.loadStateBackendFromConfig(config2, cl, null);
 
         assertTrue(backend1 instanceof ForStStateBackend);
+        assertTrue(backend2 instanceof ForStStateBackend);
 
         ForStStateBackend fs1 = (ForStStateBackend) backend1;
+        ForStStateBackend fs2 = (ForStStateBackend) backend1;
 
         checkPaths(fs1.getLocalDbStoragePaths(), localDir1, localDir2);
+        checkPaths(fs2.getLocalDbStoragePaths(), localDir1, localDir2);
     }
 
     /**