In January 2023, Oracle changed its Java SE licensing model. What had been a manageable line item — priced per processor — became a per-employee metric that caught many large enterprises off guard. For some, projected costs didn’t double; they quintupled.
EWE AG, one of Germany’s leading energy and infrastructure companies, was one of those companies. Serving more than two million customers across northern Germany, EWE runs Java at scale: more than 100 applications, tens of thousands of desktop endpoints, and a regulatory environment — Germany’s BSI Act and its KRITIS critical infrastructure framework — that demands those systems stay patched, supported, and secure. When Oracle’s new math landed, EWE’s projected Java bill would have increased roughly fivefold compared with prior spend.
“When Oracle Java changed the licensing metric, we realized it would become far more expensive for us,” said Sacha Massarra, License Manager at EWE AG. “That was the moment we decided to move to an alternative.”
Why Did Oracle Java Fragmentation Make the Problem Worse?
The sticker shock was just half of EWE’s Java problem. The other half was already there: a sprawling, fragmented Java estate that had accumulated over years of growth. Multiple distributions. Multiple versions. Some legacy workloads still running on Java 6, which Oracle had stopped supporting years earlier. New Java instances continued to enter the environment through incoming applications, making the Java fleet harder to manage with every passing quarter.
This kind of fragmentation isn’t unusual. It’s endemic to large enterprises that have grown through acquisition, business unit autonomy, or simply years of evolving technology decisions. But it has real operational cost: extra work for packaging teams, slower software deployment cycles, more complicated user support, and governance blind spots.
EWE came to Azul through ProLicense, a Hamburg-based consulting firm specializing in Oracle license audits and advisory services. After evaluating its options, including free, unsupported OpenJDK distributions, EWE concluded that going unsupported wasn’t a real option. “In a corporate environment, switching to a Java platform without support is not really an option,” Massarra said.
How Did EWE Execute a Low-Risk Oracle Java Migration?
EWE selected Azul Core and executed a phased migration in waves. Initial rollouts covered small groups of 50 to 200 devices, allowing early adopters to validate applications and surface issues before broader deployment. As confidence grew, the waves got larger. The full migration across more than 100 applications and thousands of desktops was completed in approximately eight to nine months. The results:
- 60% reduction in Java licensing costs, compared with what Oracle’s new model would have required
- Java environment standardized from 20+ distributions down to a single supported standard, streamlining maintenance
- Fast, low-risk migration: even the most difficult application migration took only four hours
- Operational simplification across IT, packaging, and user support teams
- Sustainability benefits: reduced compute consumption aligned with EWE’s broader environmental goals as an energy company
“If you reduce twenty different Java packages down to one,” noted Gerold Frilling, License Manager at EWE AG, “the internal support effort drops significantly. Azul’s support was fast, structured, highly competent, and very uncomplicated. There was no problem that wasn’t immediately addressed.”
The verdict from EWE’s IT team was unambiguous. Massarra put it simply: “Nobody needs Oracle Java anymore. If you need support, the clear answer is: switch to Azul.”
Is EWE AG’s Experience Typical? A Pattern Across Industries
EWE’s experience reflects a pattern that’s been playing out across industries and geographies since Oracle’s licensing change. The catalyst may differ — an audit threat here, a budget review there — but the destination is increasingly the same.
Sasol, a South African energy and chemicals company with ~$14B in annual revenue, faced compounding pressure from escalating Oracle costs, compliance complexity, and a growing security gap from running unsupported Java 6 and 7 across 150+ business-critical applications and 7,000 devices.
After a two-month proof-of-value test, Sasol migrated to Azul Core between April and September 2025. Result: Oracle licensing costs reduced by 92%, improved security posture, and better alignment with energy industry regulatory requirements.
“Azul enabled us to take control of and future-proof our Java environment, reducing costs while improving security and compliance,” said Shailendra Nathoo, Senior Lead for IT Asset Management at Sasol.
Ausgrid, Australia’s largest electricity distributor, estimated that an Oracle Java audit could expose them to costs of up to $700,000 per year.
After migrating to Azul Core, Ausgrid reduced potential Java licensing costs by 80%, cut Java-related security vulnerabilities by 99%, and completed the migration across thousands of desktops and hundreds of applications in just two months.
“To get the final verdict from our IT team that said, ‘You’re golden,’ that was a huge sigh of relief,” said Glen Parker, Senior Partner Solutions Manager at Ausgrid.
Parnassia Groep, the largest mental health service provider in the Netherlands, needed certainty that its Java estate would stay free from vulnerabilities that could compromise patient data.
After migrating to Azul Core, Parnassia reduced subscription costs by 80% and gained a clearer, more manageable view of its entire Java landscape.
“The migration saved us 80% in subscription costs and helped us gain an excellent overview of our Java landscape,” said Melanie van Leeuwen, Contract Manager IT.
What Do These Oracle Java Migrations Have in Common?
Set these stories side by side and several themes emerge:
- The Oracle licensing change was a forcing function, not a long-term strategy. Organizations that were already managing Java complexity found themselves suddenly paying for it in new ways. The pricing change created urgency, but the underlying problems — sprawl, legacy version dependencies, security gaps — were already there.
- Free OpenJDK is not a real enterprise option at scale. Every one of these organizations evaluated unsupported distributions and declined. Managing patches, zero-days, and support escalations across a distributed environment creates internal overhead that far exceeds the licensing savings — particularly in regulated industries where Java security is non-negotiable.
- The operational benefits often exceed the licensing savings. Cost reduction is the headline, but every organization also describes meaningful operational gains: fewer distributions to manage, simpler governance, reduced support burden, better security coverage, more responsive tech support. Standardization on a single, supported platform delivers returns well beyond the invoice.
The Bigger Picture
Oracle’s 2023 pricing change sent a jolt through enterprise Java programs that is still echoing around the world. It has forced a long-overdue reckoning with Java estates that had grown sprawling, fragmented, and expensive to maintain. For many organizations, the move to Azul Core wasn’t just a cost-reduction exercise. It was an opportunity to get their Java house in order.
For EWE, a company that keeps the lights on for two million people, that kind of control isn’t just operationally valuable, it’s part of the mission.
