SE Asia Leads the Charge in Shifting Away from Oracle Java Amid Rising Costs and Cloud Challenges

SINGAPORE, February 12, 2025 – The 2025 Azul State of Java Survey & Report has revealed critical insights into how enterprises across South East Asia (SEA) are navigating the evolving Java landscape. With responses from over 2,000 Java professionals globally, the report highlights the growing dissatisfaction with Oracle Java, the challenges of cloud cost management, and the increasing role of Java in artificial intelligence (AI) development. Notably, SEA organisations are at the forefront of several key trends, including a stronger inclination towards open-source alternatives and a heightened focus on optimising cloud and AI infrastructure.

Dean Vaughan

Sharing the findings at a select media roundtable last Friday, Mr Dean Vaughan, Vice President of APAC, Azul, said, “Organisations are actively seeking ways to optimise their Java deployments to drive operational efficiency and cost predictability. In SEA, this sentiment is particularly strong, with the region’s enterprises demonstrating a clear commitment to innovation and efficiency in the face of rising costs and evolving technological demands.”

The findings of the Azul 2025 State of Java Survey & Report paint a picture of a region at the forefront of technological transformation. SEA organisations are not only leading the charge in exploring alternatives to Oracle Java but are also pioneering efforts to optimise cloud infrastructure and harness Java’s potential for AI development.

Growing Discontent with Oracle Java in SEA

Oracle’s employee-based pricing model for Java SE, introduced in 2023, continues to fuel concerns among enterprises worldwide. In SEA, these concerns are even more pronounced, with 52% of respondents expressing being “very concerned” or “extremely concerned” about Oracle’s pricing changes. This is significantly higher than the global average of 43%.

The survey also found that 88% of organisations globally are considering migrating away from Oracle Java, with SEA organisations citing cost, preference for open-source software, and restrictive Oracle policies as their primary motivations. These factors resonate more strongly in SEA than in other regions, underscoring the region’s appetite for cost-effective and flexible alternatives.

As Java continues to evolve, SEA’s proactive approach to overcoming these challenges positions it as a key player in shaping the future of enterprise Java adoption and innovation.

Cloud Cost Challenges

Java workloads account for over 50% of cloud compute costs for nearly two-thirds of organisations globally. In SEA, the struggle with inefficient cloud resource allocation is evident, with 71% of companies reporting more than 20% unused cloud compute capacity. However, SEA organisations are taking proactive steps to address these challenges.

A striking 45% of SEA respondents have turned to high-performance JDKs to optimise cloud costs, compared to just 24% globally. This reflects the region’s proactive approach to aligning cloud investments with actual usage and improving application performance. Additionally, SEA organisations are leveraging newer, more efficient compute instances and processors to mitigate cloud cost overruns.

DevOps Productivity and Security Concerns

The survey highlights significant productivity challenges for DevOps teams, with 62% of respondents globally citing dead or unused code as a major impediment. In SEA, this issue is compounded by lingering security vulnerabilities. A substantial 62% of SEA organisations are still grappling with Log4j vulnerabilities discovered in 2021, compared to 49% globally.

Furthermore, 33% of respondents globally reported that DevOps teams waste over half their time addressing false positives from Java-related security vulnerabilities. While the report does not provide a regional breakdown for this statistic, the high prevalence of Log4j issues in SEA suggests that security concerns remain a critical area for improvement in the region.

Java’s Expanding Role in AI Development

Java’s versatility is increasingly being leveraged for AI development, with 50% of organisations globally using Java to build AI functionality. This surpasses both Python and JavaScript in Java-centric enterprises. In SEA, the adoption of Java for AI is even more pronounced, with 87% of organisations anticipating the need to increase compute capacity to support Java applications with AI functionality. This is significantly higher than the global average of 72%.

The region’s focus on AI-driven innovation underscores Java’s enduring relevance as a robust and adaptable programming language. SEA organisations are leveraging Java’s extensive library ecosystem to embrace emerging technologies, further solidifying its role as a cornerstone of modern application development.