The Eclipse Foundation Announces the Results of the 2021 Jakarta EE Developer Survey

This year’s results show interest in open source enterprise Java continues to grow among enterprise developers


BRUSSELS, Belgium, Sept. 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Eclipse Foundation, one of the world’s largest open source software foundations, today announced the results of the industry’s most prominent survey for technical insights into enterprise Java, the 2021 Jakarta EE Developer Survey. The results definitively showcase significantly increased growth in the use of Jakarta EE 9 and interest in cloud native Java overall. The 2021 Jakarta EE Developer Survey Report is available to download on the Jakarta EE website.

“Since the ‘big bang’ move to the jakarta namespace with Jakarta EE 9, enterprise Java has been experiencing something of a renaissance,” said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. “With the plan for Jakarta EE 10 already formalized and the continued growth in the use of Jakarta EE 9, the cloud native future of open source enterprise Java has never looked brighter.”

The objective of this survey, now in its fourth year, is to help Java ecosystem stakeholders better understand the requirements, priorities, and perceptions of enterprise developer communities. The survey also sought to help the Java ecosystem gain a better understanding of how the cloud native world for enterprise Java is unfolding and what that means for their respective strategies and businesses. Conducted from April 6 to May 31, 2021, 940 individuals participated in the survey. Java EE 8, Jakarta EE 8 and Jakarta EE 9 have now seen 75% adoption among respondents.

Additional key findings from this year’s survey include:

  • Spring/Spring Boot continues to be the leading framework for building cloud native applications (60%), with its share increasing 16% (60% in 2021 up from 44% in 2020).
  • Jakarta EE is emerging as the second place cloud native framework with 47% usage in this year’s survey.
  • MicroProfile adoption has increased to 34% (vs 29% in 2020).
  • The popularity of microservices holds steady with a nominal increase, with the usage of the microservices architecture for implementing Java systems in the cloud increasing since last year (43% in 2021 vs 39% in 2020).
  • Over 48% of respondents have either already migrated to Jakarta EE or plan to within the next 6-24 months.

As part of the report on the survey’s findings, the Eclipse Foundation has also incorporated specific recommendations for both enterprises and technology vendors and their respective enterprise Java strategies. These include recommendations related to technology migration, application portability, balancing traditional enterprise applications with cloud native applications and more.

The Jakarta EE community welcomes contributions and participation by all interested parties. As the Jakarta EE Working Group continues to build towards the release of Jakarta EE 10, including new cloud native functionality, this is the ideal time to join the community and have your voice heard. To learn more and to participate, all are welcome to connect with the global community at the following page: https://jakarta.ee/connect/  

Companies that value enterprise Java and would like to help shape its future can join the Jakarta EE Working Group. Membership in the working group allows enterprises and other organizations to support the sustainability of the community, participate in marketing programs, and engage directly with the community. Learn more about the benefits and advantages of membership here: https://jakarta.ee/membership/.

For those organizations interested in learning more about how Jakarta EE can benefit them, the Jakarta EE Working Group has published a white paper on the features and capabilities of Jakarta EE that can help companies accelerate time-to-market for commercial offerings, increase the efficiency of software development, and transition to a cloud native future. Download it here: https://outreach.jakartaee.org/white-paper-java-applications.

Quotes from Jakarta EE Working Group Member Organizations

IBM
“The 2021 Jakarta EE Developer Survey shows a healthy improvement in developer awareness and use of Jakarta EE across the board and is another indicator that it is the right platform for cloud-native Java innovation,” said Melissa Modjeski, IBM VP of App Platform and Integration. “As a runtime certified as both Jakarta EE and MicroProfile compatible, Open Liberty delivers on the promise of Cloud Native Java and is an essential element of accelerating open hybrid cloud adoption.”

Jelastic
“The 2021 Jakarta EE Developer Survey results prove that cloud adoption keeps growing, as well as more and more enterprise projects decide to develop and run cloud-native applications,” said Tetiana Fydorenchyk, Jelastic VP of Marketing. “Also, considering that Jelastic was the first cloud platform with Jakarta EE 9 support, it’s satisfying to see that we helped to spread this version and make it available for those interested in the latest and upcoming improvements. Based on the research, faster pace of innovation is among the top priorities for Jakarta EE community, that’s why Jelastic PaaS will continue providing cutting-edge DevOps tools and most recent releases to simplify and accelerate adoption.”

Oracle
“We are very happy to see that the Jarkata EE developer survey findings demonstrate continued success and growth of the Jakarta EE platform,” said Tom Snyder, VP of Engineering, Enterprise Cloud Native Products at Oracle. “We are quite pleased to see the most requested feature is support for Kubernetes. We hope to bring the experience and expertise we've gained delivering and supporting Oracle Verrazzano Enterprise Container Platform to benefit technology and feature development of Jakarta EE Platform and MicroProfile. With Verrazzano, users can easily model, manage, secure, and maintain their enterprise applications developed in Jakarta EE using a wide range of platforms and frameworks running on premise, or in the cloud.”

Payara
“The 2021 Jakarta EE Developer Survey has produced a useful and encouraging set of results. They affirm both the Eclipse Foundation and Payara’s direction of innovation and provide valuable information on the priorities of our community,” said Steve Millidge, CEO & Founder, Payara Services. “I was excited to see proof of wider mainstream adoption of Jakarta EE 8 and Jakarta EE 9, confirming community satisfaction ahead of the further innovations of Jakarta EE 10. It was also fantastic to see that Jakarta EE emerged as the second-place cloud native framework, as our own business priorities are closely aligned with Jakarta EE’s aim of providing strong business application development for the cloud. For example, we have helped customer Rakuten Card move to 100% cloud native with Jakarta EE and our new Payara Cloud project is designed specifically to provide an automated alternative to other cloud native application servers. We’re looking forward to sharing the results of the survey with our community and wider team and using it to shape Payara’s future plans.”

Tomitribe
“The 2021 Jakarta EE Developer survey highlights the continuing adoption of Jakarta EE by enterprises for cloud-native Java applications. The latest Jakarta EE 9.1 release is the most diverse release to date, with more vendors providing compatible implementations and support than ever before,” said Jonathan Gallimore, Tomitribe Director of Support. “Apache TomEE implements Jakarta EE 9.1 WebProfile to deliver a lightweight, easy-to-use, cloud-native Java solution. We are excited to help drive Apache TomEE forward as Jakarta EE continues to evolve to meet the needs of the community and its users.”

About the Eclipse Foundation

The Eclipse Foundation provides our global community of individuals and organizations with a mature, scalable, and business-friendly environment for open source software collaboration and innovation. The Foundation is home to the Eclipse IDE, Jakarta EE, and over 400 open source projects, including runtimes, tools, and frameworks for cloud and edge applications, IoT, AI, automotive, systems engineering, distributed ledger technologies, open processor designs, and many others. The Eclipse Foundation is an international non-profit association supported by over 330 members, including industry leaders who value open source as a key enabler for their business strategies. To learn more, follow us on Twitter @EclipseFdn, LinkedIn or visit eclipse.org.

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