According to a new survey, Oracle’s been bleeding Java JDK customers since it got greedy with its pricing in 2023.
According to a recently released survey and report, Oracle might have priced itself out of the Java market. That should come as a surprise to practically no one, since at Oracle high prices have always been job one.
According to the Oracle Java Usage, Pricing, and Migration Survey that was conducted by Dimensional Research for Silicon Valley-based Azul Systems (which directly competes with Oracle in Java space), Oracle is bleeding Java customers. More than 80% of respondents indicated they’re moving away from Oracle’s Java Development Kit, mostly to implementations based on free and open source OpenJDK.
The exodus, which was already being much discussed in online forums such as Reddit, began in 2023 when Oracle made a major change in the way it prices Java. Under the new scheme, business users are charged based on the company’s size — specifically, on the number of employees, which includes part-time workers and contractors. In other words, it’s not based on the number of named users who can sign in, the amount of Java being consumed, or where or how it’s being used. Every new hire ups the cost, or will at license renewal time.
Azul’s report includes responses from 663 participants from companies of all sizes, across all continents — presumably excluding Antarctica — with all participants having a working knowledge of of Java and 75% saying a substantial part of their jobs involve Java. Participants ranged in seniority from individual contributors to director and above. Any participant who did not meet the criteria for company size or use of Java was disqualified from completing the survey.
The fact that Oracle is losing Java is not new; it’s been going on for years, probably since it obtained ownership of Java through its acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2009. As recently as 2020, however, Oracle held about 75% of the JDK market according to New Relic, a number that had dropped to 42%, according to Azul’s State of Java Survey and Report 2023, which focused on the entire Java arena.
This latest report, which focuses entirely on Oracle, shows that downward trend accelerating, with 86% of respondents who are currently using Oracle Java SE saying they are either in the process of moving or plan to move all or some of their Java applications off Oracle. Only 14% who identified themselves as subscribers to Oracle Java said they intend to remain with Oracle.
Other Key Findings
- Cost and uncertainty behind migration away from Oracle Java: 60% of those participating in the survey said that they have either already moved completly off Oracle Java or already have plans to do so.
“When asked why they decided to migrate off Oracle Java, participants’ top three answers were cost, preference for open source, and uncertainty over Oracle’s ongoing pricing changes.”
- Migration from Oracle to OpenJDK is easier than expected: 84% said their migration went as expected or was even easier; 75% of companies that have migrated off Oracle Java said the migration was completed within a year, which includes 23% that finished in three months or less.
“Participants who are choosing to stay with Oracle Java said migrating is too risky, they lack the resources to migrate successfully, or they are concerned they won’t be able to migrate completely off Oracle Java and will still have to pay Oracle.”
- Java users value support and expertise: “61% of survey participants value technical expertise in an OpenJDK distribution, followed by timely releases and fixes (54%), customer support (42%), stabilized security-only updates (40%),and migration expertise (39%).”
The survey indicates that companies dropping Oracle for OpenJDK aren’t going forward without support. In a select-all-that-apply question that asked, “what level of support does your company require for running OpenJDK Java applications in production,” 83% selected either paid support, free support (support bundled with their existing cloud and infrastructure platform), or both.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
