Universities are under pressure from Oracle Java audits that can result in a 2-5x increase in license costs due to Oracle’s employee-based licensing model – a model that can also include students in some cases.
“A 60% license cost increase just didn’t sit well with us. There are countless ways we could use those funds to support our students.”
— Andrew Yong, Manager of Enterprise Applications, University of Southern Queensland
Both Oracle JDK and Azul Platform Core are derived from OpenJDK open source. Java components like the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), libraries, etc. are completely interchangeable. No modifications to source code are required to replace one with the other, nor is a recompilation of application code necessary.
Oracle is increasing their pricing while no longer supporting older technologies. Azul continues to provide production support for Java 6, Java 7, Java Applets, Java Web Start and Java FX on Java 8.
“As with most universities, we are always looking for efficiency from our IT vendor relationships, not just by lowering costs, but also by eliminating uncertainty and distractions. Supporting so many departments and managing a wide range of vendor relationships means I can’t afford to worry about unexpected headaches such as price increases and audits. With Azul we found a trusted partner who was easy to work with and provided a secure, drop-in replacement for Oracle Java.”
