The Fastest, Lowest-Risk Way to Replace Oracle Java

Oracle’s licensing changes have turned Java into a major cost and compliance concern for many enterprises. With its move to employee-based pricing, organizations have seen Java costs increase sometimes by several multiples. 

It’s no surprise that 81% of companies are migrating or planning to migrate away from Oracle Java to OpenJDK alternatives, according to the Azul 2026 State of Java Survey & Report. 

But replacing Oracle Java isn’t as simple as swapping out a runtime. Enterprises must answer three critical questions: 

What’s the Right Approach to Migration?

But replacing Oracle Java isn’t as simple as swapping out a runtime. Enterprises must answer three critical questions: 

• Compatibility: Will an alternative behave exactly like Oracle Java? 

• Migration: How can we transition quickly without disrupting critical applications? 

• Compliance: How do we ensure Oracle Java doesn’t creep back into the environment and trigger license exposure? 

Without the right approach, migration projects can drag on for months and still leave organizations exposed to compliance risk. 

Know Thy Java

The key to successfully migrating from Oracle Java is the discovery process. Often, enterprises are under pressure from Oracle to renew their contract and lack the time to discover all their critical Java workloads across their extensive Java estate – and migrate them – before the contract renews. This is because most enterprises have no automated way to identify the applications they’re running and answer these basic questions: 

• Who owns the application? They’ll need to be notified about the pending migration. 

• Should the application be migrated? If it bundles Oracle Java there is no commercial liability and therefore no migration needed. 

• Will the application be supported post-migration? It’s often necessary to reach out to a third-party application vendor and verify that they will support the chosen OpenJDK vendor. 

• Does the application make use of unsupported technology? If so, because most OpenJDK vendors other than Azul do not provide support for legacy technologies, an investigation will be needed to understand whether it can be upgraded, migrated, or sunsetted. 

• Is the Oracle Java instance even running an application? It may no longer be in use and can simply be removed. 

A Complete Oracle Java Exit Strategy

Azul addresses these challenges with a bundled solution combining Azul Core and Azul JVM Inventory (JVMI). Together, they provide the technologies enterprises need to migrate off Oracle Java and stay compliant. 

1. A Drop-in Replacement for Oracle Java  

Azul Platform Core is a 100% compatible OpenJDK distribution tested with Oracle’s Technology Compatibility Kit, making it a true drop-in replacement for Oracle Java. It also mirrors Oracle’s operational model with: 

• Quarterly Critical Patch Updates (CPUs) for rapid security patching 

• Out-of-cycle patches for urgent issues 

• Long-term support across major platforms and legacy Java versions 

This means teams can replace Oracle Java without changing existing processes or workflows. 

2. Faster, Automated Migration 

The biggest obstacle to replacing Oracle Java is visibility. Most enterprises don’t have a clear view of where Java is running or which applications depend on it. Discovering and cataloging thousands of JVMs across servers and desktops can take months if done manually. 

Azul JVM Inventory solves this problem automatically. By instrumenting running JVMs with a lightweight agent, JVMI identifies: 

• Every Java runtime in the organization 

• Which applications they are running 

• Which are unused and can simply be removed 

This automated discovery reduces migration timelines from months to weeks. 

3. Ongoing Oracle Java Compliance 

Even after migration, Oracle Java often reappears in enterprise environments, installed by employees, bundled with applications, or added during system updates. 

JVMI continuously monitors the environment and immediately detects new Oracle Java installations, enabling teams to remove them before they create compliance exposure. This provides: 

• Continuous visibility into Java runtime usage 

• A full historical audit trail 

• Protection against costly Oracle audits 

In short, Azul Core + JVM Inventory delivers for enterprises a fast, predictable path off Oracle Java with minimal disruption and long-term protection from licensing risk. 

>Learn more about zero-risk migration from Oracle Java to Azul Core.