Azul Launches Migration Services to Help IT Teams Transition Quickly and Safely From Proprietary Oracle Java SE to Zulu Builds of OpenJDK

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Azul, provider of the world’s most trusted open source Java platform, announced that it now offers a new series of migration services to help enterprise and public sector IT teams transition from proprietary Oracle Java SE to Zulu builds of OpenJDK. These turnkey services include inventory and usage auditing software, along with application-level testing and verification, to help organizations move their entire Java estate quickly, easily, and securely from Oracle to Azul’s OpenJDK platform. To learn more about Azul Migration Services, click here.

With Oracle’s recent Java licensing and commercial support pricing changes, many users have grown increasingly frustrated and are looking for cost-effective, open source alternatives. Despite some misinformation being promulgated about the challenges associated with a transition, the truth is that most organizations can migrate easily, quickly, and securely to Azul Zulu builds of OpenJDK, a straightforward “drop-in” replacement for Oracle Java SE. Based on the same underlying source code developed in the OpenJDK project, Oracle Java and Azul’s Java products are identical with regard to Java specification compliance and performance. For example, Commend International GmbH recently switched from Oracle to Azul. “Zulu was a drop-in replacement and migration has taken less than three months,” said Michael Thalhammer, Head of Software Development at the company. “Had we known how seamlessly and smooth the process would be, we would have switched from Oracle Java to Azul Zulu builds of OpenJDK much earlier on.”

Some Java-based organizations face more complex migration scenarios, which might include a large number of legacy systems whose developers are long gone, or they simply may not have the necessary resources in-house to manage such a project themselves. For these customers, Azul and its certified partner ecosystem now provide advisory support and project management, plus turnkey migration and application modernization. There are two levels of Migration Services Azul and its partners offer: Migration and Modernization.

• Level 1, Migration: A typical scenario involves an organization who wishes to migrate directly from Oracle Java to Azul Zulu builds of OpenJDK. In this case, Azul partners work alongside the organization’s technical teams to expedite a complete turnkey migration, from inventory and usage auditing, through testing and certification. The process typically takes a few weeks from planning to completion, and results in creating an inventory of the Java estate by vendor, by Java version, by Java security patch level, and by which Java runtimes are currently being used, and then defines the timetable and executes the migration through final test and “go live.”
• Level 2, Modernization: This partner-led service is ideal for customers wishing to modernize their applications from older Java versions to more current releases, for example applications based on Java 6 or 7 updated to run using Java 8 or 11. Modernization initiatives result in Java deployments being inherently more secure and maintainable.

“We see countless companies switching from proprietary Oracle Java SE to Azul Zulu builds of OpenJDK to gain the benefits of dramatically lower costs and the industry’s best support,” said Scott Sellers, Azul president and CEO. “But enterprise IT teams span a wide range of capabilities and technical expertise. They may have downsized IT staff, may not have Java experts in-house, or may be running critical legacy systems on older versions of Java SE, and aren’t sure if internal staff can effectively manage the transition. That’s where Azul Migration Services come in. Expert engineers from Azul and our certified partners work with organizations to ensure fast, easy, and secure migration and modernization of Java applications. Migration to Azul typically takes a few weeks, and then your savings in Java TCO – as high as 90% — begins immediately.”

EPAM Systems, a leading global provider of digital platform engineering and software development services, is a premier migration services partner. With thousands of Java experts serving customers in more than 30 countries around the world, EPAM’s end-to-end solutions—from strategic consulting to engineering at scale—help customers quickly migrate and modernize legacy Java systems with minimal disruption and risk.

“Migrating from Oracle Java SE to an open source OpenJDK distributions, like Azul Zulu, in complex legacy systems or across an enterprise is an undertaking that requires thorough planning and implementation, and a technology partner experienced in Java and open source as well as complex enterprise landscapes,“ said Eli Feldman, CTO, Advanced Technology, EPAM Systems. “We’re pleased to be working with Azul in offering this new migration service and look forward to using our depth and breadth of experience to provide a seamless process to those interested in successfully completing the switch.”

“SoftwareONE and Azul have a long-standing partnership with the goal of moving customers to cost-effective OpenJDK support,” said Abhishek Gupta, Global Business Owner, Java Advisory of SoftwareONE. “The combination of SoftwareONE’s Java Advisory services and Azul’s long history of guiding customers’ migration to Azul Zulu has proven to be a powerful and compelling offering.”

Remend combines audit and compliance software with hands-on expert advisory services to help customers reduce their Oracle infrastructure costs. And the best way to reduce those infrastructure costs is to #SwitchToAzul.

“Remend is pleased to be working with Azul as a Migration Partner,” said Ed Tybursky, CEO and Co-founder of Remend. “Our approach to migration services can benefit enterprises of all sizes, with a cost-effective and flexible set of service offerings to help customers easily, quickly, and painlessly migrate to Azul’s Java offerings.”

About Azul

Azul Systems (Azul) is the largest company 100% focused on Java and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), providing the world’s most trusted open source Java enterprise platform. Azul’s Java runtimes power Microsoft Azure; the cloud infrastructure of companies like Bazaarvoice, Priceline, and Workday; and the operations and products of Avaya, BMW, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Telekom, LG, Mastercard, Mizuho, and Software AG. Azul’s customers include 27% of the Fortune 100, 50% of Forbes Top 10 World’s Most Valuable Brands, and all 10 of the world’s Top 10 financial trading companies. Azul solutions are available for developers, ISVs, enterprises with on-prem and cloud deployments, as well as for OEMs building embedded and IoT devices. Visit azul.com and follow us on Twitter @azulsystems.