With the rapid movement of technology and the competition that comes with it, organizations must not only adopt new IT solutions but do so with minimal expenditure. An optimization of IT infrastructure costs allows companies to channel part of that budget toward any strategic task, be it marketing, product development, or enhancing customer service experiences.
Java continues to be one of the most widely used languages in corporate-domains. Reliable, cross-platform, and a plethora of tools, Java and End-to-end Java software development are strong candidates for cost optimization. In this article, we discuss how the utilization of Java allows companies to save on IT infrastructure development and support.
Free Ecosystem and Open Source
One of the fundamental causes of why Java remains one of the best cost-effective options in the business world is owing to its free nature. Java was originally devised as open source. In the last few years, Oracle has been promoting OpenJDK, an open-source implementation of the Java Development Kit available for use without license fees.
Using OpenJDK frees companies from depending on commercial solutions and avoids any unforeseen changes in vendor licensing policies. Expert Java consulting have helped many companies to migrate to OpenJDK with the help from for their projects, and this has allowed them a vast amount of operational savings.
There are some advantages of using OpenJDK.
- It's free: all companies can use it without the necessity to buy the commercial versions of the JDK.
- Developed community: Java is supported and developed by thousands of developers around the globe, who also provide help and solutions that come for free for the problems arising.
- Compatibility: Code written under OpenJDK works at par with commercial versions of Java, thus giving freedom of choice.
- Updates: Companies enjoy flexibility on when to update versions, thus avoiding mandatory paid updates.
Apart from the language itself, Java offers an ecosystem of tools and development environments covering free solutions. Popular IDE choices include IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition, Eclipse, and NetBeans that come loaded with a rich feature set and no licensing costs.
Many organizations, too, go for using vendor-sustained, long-term supported server offerings based on OpenJDK versions, namely Red Hat OpenJDK or Amazon Corretto, which, one would almost say, enjoy great stability.
Versatility and Cross-platformability
Java implements the theory of WORA, or "Write Once, Run Anywhere", indicating the writing of a code once and subsequently adopting it on any platform. This reduces software adaptation costs on different operating systems and server environments. Thus, Java permits:
- One code base run on the Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms, reducing support costs;
- Working across various hardware platforms without further development;
- Avoiding operating system licensing costs by using free solutions (e.g., Linux over Windows Server).
Companies that use Java can develop applications running almost equally well on both local servers and cloud servers, thus minimizing costly infrastructure adjustments. And with Docker and Kubernetes, Java applications find a decent way to get into deployment while saving quite a lot in terms of support costs and DevOps processes.
Longevity and backward compatibility
Many companies opt for Java due to its stability and long life cycle. Most programming languages go obsolete in a short time, but Java keeps supporting older versions backward compatible.
So these benefits come into the fray:
- Reduced refactoring and support costs for legacy systems;
- No need for frequent software updates;
- Low staffing costs due to the large pool of available programmers;
- Guaranteed version support, which mitigates the risk of sudden updates and incompatibilities.
Java applications that were built 10 to 15 years ago would function correctly, helping companies evade costly and frequent code rewrites and architecture updates. In addition, long-term version support (LTS) allows enterprises to rely on stable and working versions of Java without the burden of upgrading to a new Java version in a few years.
Scalability and Performance
The technology used must be such that easy scalability is possible as the workload becomes heavy for any business. Java maintains high performance and flexibility to avoid the cost of buying additional hardware and optimize resource utilization.
Cost optimization methods in Java include:
- Use of cloud services rather than buying servers. Working with cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure diminishes the cost of maintaining physical servers;
- Microservice architecture. Building microservices perfectly matches the characteristics of Java, keeps the infrastructure load lighter, and greatly eases the new features' deployment;
- JVM optimization. With efficient memory management, modern versions of the JVM present automatic performance tuning that considerably reduces the necessity for hardware upgrades.
Also use auto-scaling servers to provide the best load balancing. With these capabilities, organizations can run applications under demanding loads without a corresponding investment in infrastructure.
Development Ecosystem and Process Automation
This advanced ecosystem of tools accelerates development while simplifying software maintenance, thereby impacting costs. The following types of tools are present in the Java ecosystem.
Off-the-shelf frameworks and libraries, e.g., Spring, Hibernate, Quarkus, and Micronaut, which allow for significantly accelerated application development.
Automated test and deployment tools, e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, etc., which substantially reduce testing and release time per version.
Containerization and orchestration-Docker and Kubernetes unite to automate application deployment and scaling, along with Java.
Benefits of automation to the business will include:
- Less testing and support costs. Automated tests and CI/CD pipelines save on manual labor;
- Faster development. Off-the-shelf solutions and Java infrastructure allow teams to rollout new versions quickly;
- Reduced infrastructure costs. Cloud technologies and containerization also help minimize the cost paid for physical servers.
Cutting Down on Training and Recruitment Costs
Java sees a place among the most sought-after programming languages by companies. They find it easy to hire qualified personnel, thus reducing the costs of training new employees.
Java advantages in recruiting are:
- Vast developer base- Java being taught to millions of professionals around the globe;
- Established documentation and training materials will help new employees adapt well;
- Availability of certified specialists makes recruitment easy.
Further, Java developers are of high caliber, which mitigates the chances of error in coding, hence minimizing the budget for bug fixing. Thanks to the structured architectures of Java applications, the enterprises face reduced problems with technical debts and thus reduced spending on systems long-term support and modernization.
Summary
Java will be among the most economical languages for IT infrastructure. Open source, cross-platform, very mature, and extensive automation capability enables companies to curtail application development and support costs.
Java will help business organizations:
- Avoid license fees and pay for costly commercial products.
- Write once, run anywhere.
- Optimize server and cloud infrastructure costs.
- Automate development and deployment processes, reducing time and cost.
- Provide highly resilient and easy-to-maintain infrastructure.
The end result is a robust, flexible IT infrastructure that can reshape itself to meet market changes without any heavy financial burden. Java continues to be the strategic option of choice for the business which relies heavily on efficiency and cost.
