Brought to you by Azul Systems
When a mining company in Australia recently got a bill for its use of Java software, a key part of any digital system today, it was shocked to see the size of the asking price.
For a company of a large number of staff, it was asked to pay multiple millions of dollars for the use of a piece of software that was once free.
As if to rub things in, the company didn’t have that many computers running Java – most of its employees were involved in operations on mining locations instead of sitting behind a screen.
A new licensing scheme introduced in early 2023 by Oracle, which makes the most popular version of Java today, means that businesses are charged based on the number of employees they have, not the actual number of users.
In an earlier commentary on the change, research firm IDC expects some businesses to end up paying two to five times what they had been paying before.
While some businesses across Asia-Pacific have paid up, many others that have received such letters to license their use of Java from Oracle this past year have taken them as a cue to start looking for alternatives.
“For many businesses, the Java bill has come as a shock because many of their employees do not actually use the software at all,” said Dean Vaughan, Azul’s vice-president for Asia-Pacific.
“Many are also realising there is a choice in other versions of Java that do the job just as well or even better,” he added. “Plus, they are a lot more reasonably priced.”
Azul, which offers a version of Java that is supported by its team of experts, has picked up momentum in bookings across Asia-Pacific in the past year. Driven by a number of sectors, from financial services to higher education, sales have been strong for the company.
For its fiscal year 2024, it reported a 37 per cent increase in new bookings year-over-year for Asia-Pacific. It is also enjoying a strong start to the first quarter of FY25 with a 437 per cent year-over-year surge in growth in the region.
Azul’s solutions resonated particularly well in the banking and finance sector in the region, which saw a 31 per cent increase in new bookings year-over-year in FY24.
Some businesses, such as banks, were driven by regulatory pressures. They have to ensure their systems run rock-solid, supported by a version of Java that is backed up Azul, a company solely focused on Java.
Others were pushed by cost. The Australian mining company, for example, had to find a way to offset a hefty bill that is not based on actual usage on a computer or digital device but on the number of employees.
And it is not the only one – other enterprises, such as supermarket operators that have large groups of employees find it difficult to cough out millions of dollars for Oracle Java and have to seek alternatives.
For them, Azul’s Java Platform Core offers a solution for businesses that want a straight replacement for the Oracle version that they have been using in the past.
Apps that run on their earlier versions will run on Azul’s Java version, at a cost savings of up to 70 per cent for support fees.
However, Azul is not just a low-cost replacement. Its Java Platform Prime, an optimised version of Java, is targeted at businesses that seek improvements to their current Java setup.
Notably, many businesses are looking to optimise their infrastructure to reduce the growing costs of running their business operations with large cloud operators.
By running Azul’s Java Platform Prime, these businesses can optimise the cloud resources that Java uses, say, for an e-commerce app, and reduce the overall bill for up to 20 per cent.
At the same time, Azul Java Platform Prime also delivers performance, for example, in startup time, which means apps appear more responsive and customers enjoy an improved interface.
These businesses looking beyond costs are also seeking to optimise their cloud spending while boosting the performance that Java delivers to their important customer-facing apps, said Vaughan.
Together with customers seeking a more affordable option of Java, those looking to boost their performance on the cloud will be a key customer segment for Azul in the coming year, he added.
Today, Azul customers include 36 per cent of the Fortune 100, 50 per cent of Forbes top-10 World’s Most Valuable Brands, all 10 of the world’s top-10 financial trading companies and leading brands such as Avaya, Bazaarvoice, BMW, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Telekom, LG, Mastercard, Mizuho, Priceline, Salesforce, Software AG, and Workday.
