Azul State of Java 2025: Summary

The Azul State of Java 2025 survey offers a timely window into the use of Java. In the context of what remains volatile economic conditions globally, the use of Java continues to remain strong. Globally nearly 70% of respondents said that at least 50% of their applications are either built with Java or run on a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). (UK = 60%; France and Germany = 58%)

That said, the current market context has put cost efficiencies and the optimisation of Java applications and infrastructure high on the agenda for Java users.

Frustration with Oracle Java Licensing leads to growth in migration plans

In part this is driven by sustained frustration with Oracle’s approach to Java and a desire to move away to alternative versions, such as the OpenJDK. Globally, 82% of Oracle Java users continue to express unease over its cost structure – UK (83%); France (94%); Germany (87%). 88% of global Oracle Java users are considering the switch to another JVM/JDK such as those based on OpenJDK, rising from 72% in 2023 – UK (78%); France (92%); Germany (95%).

Need to make better use of cloud capacity

However, it reflects a maturing understanding of how organisations deploy applications in the Cloud with a greater emphasis on optimisation of application usage. Worldwide, nearly two-thirds (62%) of organisations that use Java workloads in the cloud say more than 50% of their cloud compute costs are from Java workloads, but 71% of survey respondents say that more than 20% of their cloud compute capacity is unused – UK (68%); France (85%); Germany (74%).

Dealing with security vulnerabilities is impacting developer productivity

There is also a concern that developer productivity needs to improve and a desire to reduce exposure to security vulnerabilities. Globally, 33% of participants say that more than 50% of their DevOps teams’ time is wasted on Java-related security vulnerability false positives, while three years after the Log4j incident almost half the companies (49%) in this survey are still experiencing security vulnerabilities from Log4j in production – UK (46%); France and Germany (61%).

Half the Java community using Java for AI

Survey respondents also have one eye on the future when thinking about productivity and optimisation. Although Python has been seen by many commentators as the “darling” coding language of developers for AI, it is clear among the Java community there is a significant role for Java. 50% of survey participants who build AI functionality use Java, surpassing the use of other popular languages like Python (41%) that are perceived as more associated with AI – UK (49%); France (51%); Germany (44%).

This underlines its long-term stability and value of Java to the enterprise.

Java applications with AI will demand more compute

However, given all the commentary about the processing power required to support AI applications it is unsurprising 72% of global respondents warn their compute consumption will have to grow to support Java applications with AI functionality – UK (74%); France (61%); Germany (66%).

This is further reason why it is critical for engineers to focus on optimising their Cloud environments to get ready to apply AI in their Java applications and infrastructure, as well as improve developer productivity.

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