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Java: a workhorse of business applications
September 26, 2019

Java: a workhorse of business applications

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Oracle Java SE

Java is the standard language for writing applications in an enterprise. Its dominant use is in writing business applications, but also for developing tools, particularly those that deal with databases and data. It is also used for Big Data applications, where the JVM allows for the use of other languages in the ecosystem. For example, Scala and Kotlin.
  • Mature platform.
  • Variety of enterprise-grade libraries.
  • Easy to find and hire developers.
  • Great performance.
  • Less verbose code.
  • Lighter deployments.
  • Inclusion of modern language constructs (as found in Scala and Kotlin).
  • Easy developer onboarding: we could hire good developers at reasonable rates.
  • No need to train the team in a new language: pretty much everybody knows Java.
  • Vast open-source libraries: there's no need to pay expensive licenses in most cases.
Java vs Scala:
  • Less "cool."
  • More verbose.
  • Less expressive.
  • Less suitable for Big Data.
  • More conservative.
  • Much easier to hire for.
  • Code can be maintained by regular engineers.
  • Performance can be slightly better.

Java vs Go:
  • Less "cool."
  • Bigger deployment footprint.
  • Higher memory consumption.
  • Slower start.
  • Worse performance.
  • Better, more mature libraries.
  • Greater engineering complexity and boilerplate than Go, which favors simplicity.
  • Much easier to hire for.
Java is such a mature product at this point that there is little support from the vendor that is needed. Various sources on the internet, and especially StackOverflow, provide a wealth of knowledge and advice.
Areas that may benefit from support is when dealing with complex multithreading issues and security libraries.

Do you think Oracle Java SE delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Oracle Java SE's feature set?

Yes

Did Oracle Java SE live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Oracle Java SE go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Oracle Java SE again?

Yes

Suitable for:
  • Business applications.
  • Tools when startup time is not critical.
  • Applications that benefit from a huge ecosystem of open-source mature libraries.
  • When easy hiring is important.

Consider alternatives with:
  • Serverless applications (cold start with Java can be considerable, look into Go, Node for better performance).
  • Developing in Kubernetes Cloud ecosystem-- there, most tools use Go.
  • Big Data processing -- consider Scala and Python.
  • Data science -- consider Python.
  • Low-level highly performant code without Garbage Collector -- consider Rust and C++.