To gather insights on the state of the Java ecosystem today for DZone's Java Ecosystem research guide to be published in September, we spoke with 15 executives who are familiar with the Java ecosystem.

Here’s who we talked to:

Joel Depernet, E.V.P. Global Research and Development, Axway | Sacha Labourey, CEO and Founder, CloudBees | Rick Reich, CEO, Development Heroes | Asad Ali, Principal Software Developer and Lisa Hamaker, Marketing Manager, Dynatrace |  David Park, V.P. of Products, HackerRank |  Charles Kendrick, Founder and CTO, Isomorphic Software | Wayne Citrin, CTO, JNBridge | Raymond Augé, Senior Software Architect, Liferay | Laura Kassovic, Founder, MbientLab | Cameron Wilby, Co-Founder, Origin Code Academy | James Faulkner, Technology Evangelist, Red Hat | Paul Trowe, CEO, Replay Games  | Calvin French-Owen, CTO and Co-Founder, Segment

We asked our respondents, "What has been the impact of Java 8 so far?" Here's what they told us:

• Java 8 Lambda expressions make it easier for developers to build applications. It’s easier to write cleaner code that’s easy to read. It’s more maintainable with less repetition.
• Uptake of Java 8 depends on the company’s desire to do so. Adoption can take years and be very frustrating. 
• A lot of attention to security fixed a lot but enterprises are slow to adopt due to lack of support. We have a lot of clients still working with the 6.2 general release. Only this fall did Adobe begin supporting 8. There’s not huge buy-in to get to 8 even though it has better security and garbage collection. 
• With regards to Java 8 we try to keep our product working on the latest version of Java. 8 has a bunch of breaking changes. Over the past year we’ve seen most of the code is Java 8 targeted assuming customers are using Java 8. 
• The biggest addition to Java 8 has been Lambda functions and streams, finally updating the language features to match those of other modern languages. Also, the Open JDK project has provided an Open Source implementation of the JVM giving users alternatives from the commercial JVM provided by Oracle.
• Over time the core development has sped up a little with Java 8. There’s a flourishing ecosystem streaming data with Java. 
• The impact of Java 8 so far is that it appeals to developers who have been focused on a single language for the past decade. Java is getting into the modern era of languages. 
• The move to Java 8 was huge but difficult. The Lambda functions simplify implementation. 
• Java 8 introduced the Lambda expressions. This was a big change moving from a pure procedural language to more functional programming that’s easier and more streamlined for the developer and closer to the other more versatile JVM languages. 
• Developer productivity has improved as the language is easier to write, read and test. 

What's your impression of the impact of Java 8 so far?