SUNNYVALE, Calif. — October 15, 2024 — Azul, the only company 100% focused on Java, today announced that Azul Platform Prime, the company’s award-winning high-performance Java platform based on OpenJDK, delivers record performance against industry benchmarks, outperforming other OpenJDK distributions by an average of 37%.[1] The company also introduced its Java Performance Engineering Lab, which collaborates with global Java developers and customers’ technical teams to deliver enhanced Java performance through continuous benchmarking, code modernization recommendations and in-depth analysis of performance impacts from new OpenJDK releases.
Why a High-Performance Java Platform Matters
Today’s enterprises are challenged to deliver against lofty expectations for Java application performance and customer experience. Companies typically over-allocate compute resources in the cloud and on-prem in an effort to increase code speed and improve stability and availability, a problem which only worsens with fluctuating peaks in demand throughout the business day. These cloud cost overruns are especially acute in high-performance sectors like trading, payments, fraud, SaaS, retail/ecommerce, gaming and ad tech.
With Azul Platform Prime, enterprises can dramatically improve application performance and responsiveness, reduce their cloud/infrastructure compute costs and increase DevOps productivity – all without recompiling or changing their application code.
Examples of recent customer achievements using Azul Platform Prime include:
- Global travel technology and distribution platform company – reduced a query application’s response time by 80%, lowered its error rate and eliminated slower and stalled transactions.
- Workday – improved its SaaS operational efficiency by 95%, eliminating over 42,000 person hours across an 18-month period. This saved Workday millions of dollars while freeing its developers to do more productive work.
- British video game developer – eliminated ticks over 600ms, erasing any pauses a gamer can detect while playing – this improved the platform’s gaming performance by 20% and improved the overall gaming experience.
- Global retailer/e-commerce company – experienced 40% reduction in compute needed for 70+ e-commerce Java applications, and transitioned to Platform Prime with no code changes.
“Azul’s Platform Prime offering plays in the market for high-performance Java platform capabilities that deliver faster and more predictable execution, greater consistency, and improved resource efficiency, which high-spending cloud infrastructure customers require,” said William Fellows, research director, Cloud-Native, 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence.[2]
Azul’s high-performance Java platform, Azul Platform Prime, includes a JDK distribution that is compatible with the Java SE spec for a given LTS release, and has enhanced JDK characteristics that provide superior speed, startup and warmup, and consistency vs typical OpenJDK distributions. Azul Platform Prime also adds centralized services capabilities external to client JVMs for greater performance and operational efficiency than what stand-alone JDK distributions can provide.
Azul’s critical capabilities for its high-performance Java platform vs. other OpenJDK distributions include:
| Critical Capabilities vs. OpenJDK | Description | Azul Platform Prime Feature |
| JDK Characteristics | ||
| Code Execution Speed | Steady-state and top speed of JIT compiled code
|
Falcon JIT compiler
|
| Startup and Warmup | Time to peak performance | ReadyNow; Optimizer Hub; CRaC
|
| Consistency | Avoidance of outliers, stalls and pauses | C4 Pauseless Garbage Collector; ReadyNow
|
| Memory Footprint | The JDK uses less memory to run the application | C4 Pauseless Garbage Collector
|
| External Services | ||
| JIT Compilation and Caching | Centralized service that offloads JIT compilation from stand-alone JVMs | Optimizer Hub – Cloud Native Compiler
|
| Centralized Distribution of Optimization Profiles | Centralized service that learns, builds, and distributes the most optimal startup and warmup profiles | Optimizer Hub – ReadyNow Orchestrator
|
| Compatibility | ||
| Java SE Specifications | The JDK can run any language feature documented in the Java SE Specification | Java TCK (Technology Compatibility Kit) verified and Java SE compliant |
| Java Version(s) Support | Support for Java Long Term Support (LTS) versions | Supports all Java LTS versions 8, 11, 17, 21 |
| Code Changes | No application modifications needed to utilize performance enhancements | Azul Platform Prime does not require code changes to deliver performance gains |
Accelerating Performance: Inside Azul’s Java Performance Engineering Lab
Azul’s Java Performance Engineering Lab was built to focus on optimizations for Azul Platform Prime. The lab works with Java developers globally as well as customers’ architects, developers, and site reliability and performance engineering teams to introduce optimizations that improve Java speed and performance. Azul’s performance engineers also make client recommendations on how to modernize their own application code which can result in even further performance gains.
Azul’s engineers continually test the code speed of Azul Platform Prime compared to other OpenJDK distributions using accepted industry standard benchmarks such as Renaissance, DaCapo and SpecJBB, as well as benchmarks for popular Java-based Apache projects like Kafka, Cassandra and Solr. Each LTS release, and updated versions of those LTS releases, typically impact Java performance. Azul continuously assesses the performance of a wide range of Java releases to improve performance and operational efficiency.
Azul’s Java Performance Engineering Lab also evaluates emerging technologies including:
- New hardware capabilities (e.g. LAM in Intel).
- Updates of CPU architectures (e.g. AWS Graviton 4).
- Latest Linux kernel features, performance tooling.
- Java evolution (e.g. CRaC, Virtual threads, Project Valhalla, Project Leyden).
- Optimizations developed and contributed to the LLVM compiler community.
LMAX Group Partners with Azul to Achieve 48% Faster Performance Over OpenJDK
One notable customer engagement embracing the unique capabilities of Azul’s Java Performance Engineering Lab is LMAX Group. LMAX Group is a global financial technology company and the leading independent operator of multiple institutional execution venues for FX and crypto currency trading. The company processes sustained volumes of 100,000 orders/second capable of bursting to almost a million orders/second per exchange at peak.
LMAX Group and Azul have forged a strong engineering partnership and collaborate on performance optimizations, code improvements and test suites. This cooperation has greatly contributed to the enhancement of LMAX Group’s leading low-latency trade execution capabilities and has enabled the team to focus on innovation to scale rapid growth. By working with Azul’s experts to improve the performance of their application code and running their application on Platform Prime, LMAX Group has been able to achieve 48% faster performance vs running on OpenJDK alone. “Our long-term partnership and the results we achieved in company with Azul are a testament to the strength of the partnership and the combined technologies that form its basis. We look forward to continuing to innovate and scale on the Azul platform,” said Andrew Phillips, chief technology officer, LMAX Group.
“Azul is redefining what’s possible with high-performance Java platforms. Today we’re delivering an average of 37% higher performance compared to other OpenJDK distributions, empowering enterprises to achieve unprecedented levels of speed, efficiency and innovation without overhauling their applications,” said Scott Sellers, co-founder and CEO at Azul. “In today’s cloud-driven economy, where every millisecond and dollar counts, Azul Platform Prime is the clear choice for organizations looking to enhance user experiences, reduce operational costs and drive competitive advantage.”
For more information on Azul’s high-performance Java platform:
- Platform Prime explainer video
- LMAX Group video interview
- Download the Cloud Cost Optimization Cookbook
- Download Platform Prime for free
About Azul Systems Inc.
Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Azul provides the Java platform for the modern cloud enterprise. Azul is the only company 100% focused on Java. Millions of Java developers, hundreds of millions of devices and the world’s most highly regarded businesses trust Azul to power their applications with exceptional capabilities, performance, security, value, and success. Azul customers include 36% of the Fortune 100, 50% of Forbes top 10 World’s Most Valuable Brands, all 10 of the world’s top 10 financial trading companies and leading brands like Avaya, Bazaarvoice, BMW, Deutsche Telekom, LG, Mastercard, Mizuho, Priceline, Salesforce, Software AG, and Workday. Learn more at azul.com and follow us @azulsystems.
# # #
Media Contact
Treble
Jin Woo
[email protected]
1. Azul uses the Renaissance benchmark suite for the JVM, which includes modern workloads, and tests are benchmarked against a baseline of 11.0l6. The benchmarks are published twice a year.
2. 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, “Azul dials up high-performance Java platform capabilities,” October 2024.