Jakarta EE doesn’t generate much buzz. It isn’t the subject of trend pieces or venture capital feeding frenzies. It just runs — reliably, continuously, invisibly — while the technology conversation moves on to whatever is newest and loudest.
But if you’ve made a credit card payment, tracked a package, or received a government notification lately, there’s a reasonable chance Jakarta EE was involved.
The technology conversation in 2026 is dominated by AI, cloud-native architectures, and the relentless churn of new frameworks promising to finally solve everything. Against that backdrop, a mature Java enterprise platform might seem like yesterday’s news: something still running in the basement of large organizations, tolerated but expected as some point to be replaced.
That picture is wrong. And the evidence is hiding in plain sight.
The Proof Is in Production
Rakuten Card, Japan’s number-one credit card company by transaction volume, with over 30 million cards issued and an annual shopping transaction volume that has surpassed ¥20 trillion, has run on Azul Payara Server (formerly Payara Server Enterprise) since 2017. In the years since, they haven’t experienced a single production issue or service stoppage. “Azul Payara is the de-facto middleware at Rakuten Card,” says Senior Architect Arshal Ameen. “We’ve found it wonderful to use, even for new hires.”
Swisscom, Switzerland’s largest telecommunications company, with a majority market share across mobile, broadband, and TV services, runs mission-critical infrastructure on Azul Payara Server (formerly Payara Server Enterprise) and describes the experience simply: “Azul Payara is super stable and patches to issues are delivered faster than we notice them!”
Hermes, Germany’s largest independent logistics service provider for business-to-consumer (B2C) and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) deliveries, operates Europe’s largest nationwide network of acceptance points with over 16,000 ParcelShops across Germany. Hermes migrated to Azul Payara Server (formerly Payara Server Enterprise) from IBM WebSphere and went into production 100 days ahead of schedule, reporting a 30% increase in processing speed, fewer problems overall, and a significant reduction in operating costs.
BMW Group, operating across 31 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries, chose Azul Payara Server (formerly Payara Server Enterprise) after Oracle ended GlassFish support, citing standards compliance and the open-source model with professional backing as the deciding factors. The result was a smooth migration, no code changes, and a long-term software lifecycle commitment that gives their mission-critical environment a stable foundation.
Zellis, the UK and Ireland’s leading payroll and HR software provider, processes tens of millions of pay slips annually, supports a third of the FTSE 100, and pays approximately one in every seven employees in the UK and Ireland. Zellis moved from Community Edition to Azul Payara Server (formerly Payara Server Enterprise) after service outages threatened their customers’ access to payroll systems. After making the switch, support issues that previously took days to resolve were being closed in hours. “The support team is very efficient in lending a hand,” says Technical Service Desk Manager Ed Roast. “Even when the cause is unknown and may not be Payara related, they will help review logs and work alongside us in our investigations.”
Why This Matters
These global enterprises evaluated their options and chose Jakarta EE not because it’s showy, not because they want to flaunt it on the keynote stage, but because it just works. Learn how Azul Payara can support your global enterprise better, faster, more effectively.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies run Jakarta EE in production today?
Jakarta EE runs mission-critical systems at large enterprises across financial services, telecommunications, logistics, manufacturing, and payroll, though it is rarely named publicly. Rakuten Card, Japan’s number-one credit card company by transaction volume, has run on Azul Payara Server (formerly Payara Server Enterprise) since 2017. Swisscom, Switzerland’s largest telecommunications company, runs mission-critical infrastructure on it, as do BMW Group, which operates across 31 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries; Hermes, which runs Europe’s largest nationwide network of parcel acceptance points; and Zellis, which pays approximately one in every seven employees in the UK and Ireland.
Why do enterprises still choose Jakarta EE for mission-critical systems?
Because the priorities for systems that cannot go down are stability, standards compliance, and a predictable support lifecycle rather than novelty. BMW Group selected Azul Payara Server on the strength of standards compliance and an open-source model with professional backing, and migrated with no code changes. Rakuten Card, which has issued over 30 million cards and whose annual shopping transaction volume has surpassed ¥20 trillion, reports no production issues or service stoppages since moving in 2017.
What are the options for migrating off GlassFish after Oracle ended support?
Because GlassFish is standards-based, the lowest-friction route is another Jakarta EE runtime implementing the same specifications, which avoids rewriting the application. BMW Group took that path to Azul Payara Server after Oracle ended GlassFish support, selecting it for standards compliance and an open-source model with professional backing, and completed the migration with no code changes. Moving instead to a proprietary application server generally means re-entering the licensing and lock-in position that a standards-based platform avoids.
How difficult is it to migrate from IBM WebSphere to another Jakarta EE application server?
It is often less disruptive than teams expect when the target implements the same Jakarta EE specifications, because the application code largely carries over. Hermes, Germany’s largest independent logistics service provider for business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer deliveries, migrated from IBM WebSphere to Azul Payara Server and went into production 100 days ahead of schedule. It reported a 30 percent increase in processing speed, fewer problems overall, and a significant reduction in operating costs.
What does a commercially supported application server provide that a community edition does not?
The practical differences are a support commitment, a predictable patch cadence, and an accountable vendor when a production issue occurs. Zellis moved from a community edition to Azul Payara Server after service outages threatened customer access to payroll systems, and found that support issues which previously took days were closed in hours. Swisscom describes patching on Azul Payara Server as “delivered faster than we notice them.” Azul publishes the Azul Payara Server support lifecycle and release schedule, and will review them against a specific environment on request.
