Is the JVM the Most Important Element of the Java Ecosystem?

To gather insights on the state of the Java ecosystem today, we spoke to nine executives who are familiar with the ecosystem. We asked these experienced Java professionals "What do you consider to be the most important elements of the Java ecosystem?" Here's what they told us:

• The JVM is critical and will outlive the language. Now using Scala, Closure, Kotlin, and Groovy as a dynamic language. The JVM is a powerful concept that will outlive the language itself. It’s interoperable with other languages. It takes time to reach the level of maturity it has.
• The JVM is rock solid and proven stable. Nothing compares. Look at the landscape of specifications. Everything under Java SC, EE, Ecosystem, OSGi, as Oasys serve as backs for the industry to build from. The ecosystem that the JVM and specifications have brought on is astounding. Massive resources are available. There is no problem that hasn’t been addressed by Java. No significant new developing to be done. So many solutions available.
• The Spring framework for building out frameworks in Java. It’s becoming the defacto standard along with IBM, Red Hat JBoss. People are moving away from enterprise java beans to Spring.
• Open source projects under the Eclipse umbrella. We track the new potential uses of the product. We track Apache projects as they are very interesting and we can provide unique solutions to problems.
• The core strength is the JVM. It’s the most stable part of the platform and serves as the core of a lot of cool things like scaling, performance, and concurrence. There is huge breadth and depth on top (e.g., JGroovy) that’s important for the ecosystem to flourish. Some problems have been solved like just-in-time compilation. Longevity is a testament to its usefulness.
• Write once run anywhere.
• It’s the story of enterprise web development with ASP .Net second and everything else far behind. Organizations like the Apache Foundation and others built out the scaffolding to build on top of so you don’t have to build your own infrastructure.
• Java 8 is more efficient and more powerful, easier to write less code. It also introduced lambda. It's great for web and mobile devices.
• 1) Formal package management is compared to others and dependency management. They’ve thought about their JVM for a long time. It’s easier than other languages. 2) Robustness of the ecosystem which already exists. 3) Available talent pool. Taught in schools and used across stacks.

What's the most important element of the Java ecosystem from your perspective? And in case you're wondering, here's who we talked to:

• Kehinde Ogunde, Developer, Andela
• Eric Shapiro, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, ArcTouch
• Prem Chandrasekaran, V.P. of Software Engineering, Barclaycard
• Rajiv Kadayam, Senior Director of Technology Strategy, eGlobalTech
• Anders Wallgren, CTO, Electric Cloud
• Ray Augé, Senior Software Architect, Liferay
• Wayne Citrin, CTO, JNBridge
• Kunal Anand, CTO, Prevoty
• Tim Jarrett, Director of Product Management, Veracode