Your Modernization Mandate Doesn’t Require a Major Rewrite

Every Java EE modernization mandate seems to offer the same two paths: rewrite the application or upgrade the incumbent server. Neither is what it looks like.

The rewrite, usually to Spring Boot, prices new code for business logic that isn’t changing. Independent analysis of 142 verified Java EE to Spring Boot migrations puts the median at $1.2 million per portfolio and 18 months, with 30 percent running over budget or past schedule. The upgrade looks safer and rarely is: on JBoss EAP, Oracle WebLogic and IBM WebSphere Application Server traditional, the vendor’s own next version is a full migration in its own right, and it ends on the same licensing model you started with.

There’s a third path. Run the application on Azul Payara Server, on the version built to the same specification your application already targets. Versions 5 through 7 are supported at the same time, covering Java EE 7 through Jakarta EE 11, so you land where your code already runs and the javax to jakarta rename never enters scope. The deployment shape changes. The application code doesn’t.

What You’ll Learn

• What a Spring Boot rewrite actually costs, and the four cases where it genuinely is the right call
• Why upgrading the incumbent server is quietly its own migration project
• How Jakarta EE, a standard with multiple certified implementations, keeps your applications portable between runtimes
• Where AI fits, and why it is a step-up you schedule rather than a day-one decision
• Named customer evidence, including Setar, Hermes (Evri), Rakuten Card, Swisscom and the US Coast Guard