Increasing Java licensing cost see users moving to alternatives

Interestingly, the most important Java trend for enterprises in 2026 according to Azul’s report is the increased use of Java for AI workloads.

When Oracle introduced an employee-based pricing model in 2023 for Java, frustrations have only intensified as users look to pivot from Java with 92% of respondents from Azul’s 2026 State of Java Survey & Report concerned and reassessing their alignment with Oracle Java and their operations.

Findings from Southeast Asia in particular revealed that 78% of Southeast Asian enterprises have migrated, are migrating, or plan to migrate at least part of their Oracle Java to a non-Oracle OpenJDK alternative distribution, as compared to 81% globally. 60% also intend to or have already moved all their Java applications and JVM-based workloads to a non-Oracle alternative distribution.

The report also revealed that the top factors for migration in the region are cost (39% vs 37% globally), uncertainty around ongoing changes (35% vs 29% globally), and Oracle’s cessation of support for Java versions or configurations that the company requires (33% vs 26% globally).

But what’s interesting in this is that 69% of respondents in the region are using Java to code AI functionality, a jump from 56% last year. This reflects a shift toward integrating machine learning models with existing Java applications whereby Java is becoming indispensable for scaling AI workloads as enterprises move AI into production.

Specifically, 62% of organizations use Java to code AI functionality as other popular languages like Python are often used for rapid prototyping and model building. As such, enterprises rely on Java to run AI in production due to its proven scalability, stability, security, and performance in production environments.

At the same time, 99% of Southeast Asian organizations that have already taken measures to address high cloud costs cite utilising a high-performance Java platform as one of the top five go-to strategies implemented. This is because ccompanies are using high-performance Java platforms to reduce cloud computing costs by improving application efficiency.

The Azul 2026 State of Java Survey & Report found that 41% of enterprises leverage high-performance Java platforms specifically to lower cloud spend. Faster execution, reduced memory usage, and improved garbage collection allow organizations to run the same workloads on fewer cloud resources, directly reducing infrastructure and operating costs.

Why are enterprises migrating away from Oracle Java?

Azul believes that enterprises are migrating away from Oracle Java primarily due to rising licensing and support costs, pricing uncertainty, and restrictive subscription models. Its survey found that 81% of organizations are currently migrating all or part of their Oracle Java estates to non-Oracle OpenJDK distributions, while 92% express concern about Oracle Java pricing. As a result, enterprises are prioritizing cost predictability, vendor independence, and long-term stability—driving widespread adoption of supported OpenJDK alternatives.

However, the most important Java trend for enterprises in 2026 according to Azul’s report also include the increased use of Java for AI workloads apart from widespread migration from Oracle Java to OpenJDK and a growing focus on performance-driven cloud cost optimization. Enterprises are prioritizing predictable licensing, and high-performance Java platforms that support both traditional applications and modern AI-driven systems. These trends position Java as a foundational technology for scalable, cost-efficient enterprise innovation.

In a media briefing session, Dean Vaughan, Azul’s Vice President for APAC explained that Java still plays an important role in the region for organizations, especially when it comes to powering AI. He feels that businesses in the region understand the technology and see it as an easier adoption tool for AI.

“It's just exploding because of the speed and the pressure on them (companies) to be able to deliver the AI functionality. For example, there was a payment processing company and they were going through so much growth that they couldn't buy the hardware infrastructure as they were on-prem. They weren't in the cloud and they couldn't buy the hardware infrastructure fast enough to be able to meet the needs and demands of the growth. As a they just couldn't roll out fast enough, they just replaced their Java layer with a faster Java and were able to get that speed and benefit without having to buy all the hardware,” Vaughan said.

Azul’s channel ecosystem

Given the opportunities in AI with Java, Vaughan also pointed out that Azul’s channel partners are providing the introductions for them to not only achieve growth but also help customers get the full potential from their Java.

Citing a few customer success stories, Vaughan explained that there are a couple of companies in Indonesia that Azul is working with a partner that resulted from a partner’s relationship with those companies. The partner was able to help Azul walk with the customer, run the pilot and access the engineering teams.

“We ran the pilot with them. But then once it's done, the partner comes back in and does all of the migration. That's the model and from a channel point of view, I think this is good for Southeast Asia, which is highly channel focused,” Vaughan said.

Vaughan also shared similar success stories with partners and customers in Malaysia and India whereby the partner would drive the opportunity with Azul and get the deal done.

“That's generally the way the model and to be honest with you, I find the partners are happy with that because it's not as complicated as going in and doing a lot more technical stuff. They've got so many vendors they work with and can't be experts and my expectation with them is just to provide us the introduction and provide us the opportunity so that we can go do the heavy lifting and they come in once we've got the agreement,” he said.