KWS is one of the world’s leading plant breeding companies. Around 5,000 employees in over 70 countries generated net sales of around €1.68 billion in fiscal year 2024/2025. A company with a tradition of family ownership, KWS has operated independently for almost 170 years. It focuses on plant breeding and the production and sale of seed for sugarbeet, corn, cereals, vegetables, oilseed rape and sunflowers. KWS uses leading-edge plant breeding methods to continuously improve yield for farmers and plants’ resistance to diseases, pests and abiotic stress.
As part of KWS’s global IT landscape, Java was widely used across multiple departments and regions for a multitude of applications required in countries worldwide.
However, over time, KWS’s Java environment had grown highly fragmented, with:
– Multiple distributions and versions: Nearly a dozen different Java versions, ranging from Java 6 to Java 21, from different vendors were in use across KWS’s applications and infrastructure.
– High operational complexity: Managing an extensive number of server- and desktop-based applications running on different Java versions, all of which needed to be maintained and regularly patched with security updates was costly and difficult.
– Support challenges: Some Java distributions were unsupported, while others had limited commercial support availability, making it difficult to resolve issues that emerged when consolidating the multiple Java versions intermingled in KWS’s infrastructure.
– Mission-critical risk: KWS relies on Java-based services to transmit tax information in multiple countries where it operates. Using these specific applications is mandatory.
According to Dr. Henk Groth, Enterprise Architect at KWS, “from an architectural standpoint, it was a mess.” The company needed to consolidate its Java landscape under a single, professional vendor that could provide strong commercial support at a reasonable cost, simplify management, and ensure security and stability worldwide.
After researching alternatives, KWS selected Azul Core to unify and standardize its Java environment. Key reasons include:
– Provider consolidation: Moving from nearly a dozen Java distributions to a single platform to simplify operations and support and improve security.
– Enterprise support: Azul provides predictable, reliable support and security updates across their entire Java estate, delivered on a strict Service-Level Agreement (SLA).
– Partnership expertise: German/Netherlands-based partner OpenValue played a critical role in migration, configuration, and packaging for KWS’s service catalog.
– Security and compliance: Regular updates and patches ensure critical applications can operate reliably
The migration included preparation, on-site coordination, and replacement of legacy Java distributions. Due to the unique requirements of various applications, much of the migration was hands-on, involving direct coordination with local teams across Europe, North and South America.
“Using just one Java distribution helped us save effort and time,” says Selcuk Özcam, IT License Manager at KWS. “Reduced effort, reduced complexity — handling one distribution is much lower cost than handling ten different ones. And Azul has always been close and responsive, which made all the difference.”
– Consolidated landscape: Reduced from almost a dozen Java distributions to a single Azul-supported platform.
– Simplified management: Approximately 200 desktops now run Azul Java, down from more than 750 previously. This cut overhead and complexity.
– Reduced costs: Lowered expenses and effort by eliminating multiple providers, licensing channels, and distribution methods.
– Improved support and availability: With one central partner, KWS gained faster problem resolution and greater stability across global operations.
– Regulatory assurance: Governmental tax and other applications now run on one consistent, supported Java platform.
“Our goal was to unify our Java landscape with a professional partner with good support. That’s why we chose Azul over other Java distributions. We had heterogeneous applications running on different Java versions from different vendors, ranging from Java 6 to Java 21. Our migration partner OpenValue helped us consolidate Java onto a single, supported platform, Azul Platform Core.”
