How Quarkus brings Java into the modern world of enterprise tech

What is old is new again, even - and maybe especially - in the world of technology. To name a few milestones that are being celebrated this year: Java is roughly 25 years old, it is the 10th anniversary of Minecraft, and Nintendo is back in vogue. None of these three examples are showing signs of slowing down anytime soon. I would argue that they are continuing to be leaders in innovation because of the simple fact that there are still people behind them that are creatively breathing new life into what otherwise could have been “been there, done that” technologies.

With Java, in particular, it is so widely used, that from an enterprise efficiency perspective, it simply does not make sense NOT to have Java be a key language in the development of emerging tech apps. In fact, more and more apps are being developed with a Java-first approach. But, how can this be done, especially when apps are being built using new architectures like serverless and microservices? One technology that shows promise is Quarkus, a newly introduced Kubernetes-native platform that addresses many of the barriers hindering Java’s ability to shine in the modern world of emerging tech.

Why does Java still matter

Even though its continued relevance has been questioned for years, I believe Java still matters and is not likely to go away anytime soon. This is because of two reasons. First, there is a whole list of programming languages that are based on Java and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), such as Kotlin, Groovy, Clojure and JRuby. Also, Java continues to be one of the most popular programming languages for Android apps, as well as for the development of edge devices and the internet of things. In fact, according to SlashData’s State of the Developer Nation Q4 2018 report, there are 7.6 million active Java developers worldwide.

Other factors that I think are contributing to Java’s continued popularity include network portability, the fact that it is object-oriented, converts data to bytecode so that it can be read and run on any platform which has a JVM installed, and, maybe most importantly, has a syntax similar to C++, making it a relatively easy language for developers to learn. Additionally, SlashData’s research suggested that newer and niche languages do not seem to be adding many new developers, if any, per year, begging the question of whether or not it is easy for newer languages to scale beyond their niche and become the next big thing. It also makes it clear that while there is value for newer programming languages that do not serve as wide a purpose, they may not be able to or need to overtake languages like Java.

In fact, the success of Java relies on the entire ecosystem surrounding it, including the editors, third party libraries, CI/CD pipelines, and systems. Each aspect of the ecosystem is something that is so easy to take for granted in established languages but are things that need to be created from scratch in new languages if they want to catch up to or overtake Java.

How Quarkus brings Java into modern enterprise tech

Quarkus is more than just a cool name. It is a Kubernetes Native Java framework that is tailored for GraalVM and HotSpot, and crafted by best-of-breed Java libraries and standards. The overall goal of Quarkus is to make Java one of the leading platforms in Kubernetes and serverless environments, while also enabling developers to work within what they know and in a reactive and imperative programming model.

Put simply, Quarkus works to bring Java into the modern microservices and serverless modes of developing. This is important because Java continues to be a top programming language for back-end enterprise developers. Many organizations have tied both time and money into Java, which has been a dominant force in the development landscape for a number of years. As enterprises increasingly shift toward cloud computing, it is important for Java to carry over into these new programming methods.

Why a “Java First” approach

Java has been a top programming language for enterprises for over a decade. We should not lose sight of that fact, and that there are many developers with excellent Java skills, as well as existing applications that run on Java. Furthermore, because Java has been around so long it has not only matured as a language but also as an ecosystem. There are editors, logging systems, debuggers, build systems, unit testing environments, QA testing environments, and more--all tuned for Java, if not also implemented in Java.

Therefore, when starting a new Java application it can be easier to find third-party components or entire systems that can help the developer gain productivity advancements over other languages that have not yet grown to have the breadth and depth of the Java ecosystem. Using a full-stack framework such as Quarkus, and taking advantage of libraries that use Java, such as Eclipse MicroProfile and Eclipse Vert.x, makes this easier, and also encourages the use of different combinations of tools and dependencies. With Quarkus in particular, it also includes an extension framework that third party authors can use to build native executables and expand the functionality of Java in the enterprise. Quarkus not only brings Java into the modern world of containers, but it also does so quickly with short start-up times.

Java is not looking like it will go away anytime soon. Between the number of developers who still use Java as their first language and the number of apps that run almost entirely from it, Java’s take in the game is as solid as ever. Through new tools like Quarkus, it can continue to evolve in the modern app dev world.

Author Bio

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Mark Little works at RedHat where he leads the JBoss Technical Direction and research & development. Prior to this, he was SOA Technical Development Manager and Director of Standards. He also has experience with two successful startup companies.