I had the opportunity to speak with Mark Little, V.P. Middleware Engineering, Red Hat, about his thoughts on the current and future state of the Java Ecosystem for DZone's upcoming research guide. Mark felt the depth and breadth of the Java Ecosystem ensures its viability for the foreseeable future. That breadth and depth are reinforced by Red Hat's announcement of the availability of long-term commercial support for OpenJDK on Microsoft Windows. By adding to its existing support for OpenJDK on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat is further enabling organizations to standardize the development and deployment of Java applications throughout the enterprise with a flexible, powerful and open alternative to proprietary Java platforms.

Craig Muzilla, senior vice president, Core Products and Cloud Services Business Group, Red Hat, reiterates Red Hat's commitment to Java. “Through the years, we have been unwavering in our commitment to the OpenJDK community and have consistently demonstrated that commitment as the overall Java landscape has evolved. By extending support to users running OpenJDK on Windows, we are reinforcing our dedication to the success of open source enterprise Java and its users. With changes on the horizon impacting the long-term support of proprietary JDK solutions, we want to give customers the confidence that they can continue to do what they have been doing with minimal disruption, backed by Red Hat's deep Java experience and award-winning enterprise support.”

As one of the most popular programming languages in use today, Java is used by developers across industries to create modern applications that are at the heart of digital infrastructure. Today, these applications are extending from the desktop and datacenter to the cloud, and span multiple operating systems and platforms. Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s most comprehensive enterprise Kubernetes platform, brings commercial support for OpenJDK to all major cloud providers, reinforcing Red Hat’s leadership and commitment to hybrid cloud and multi-cloud solutions.

According to Michael Azoff, Distinguished Analyst, Ovum Research, “The results of our recent survey on the future of Enterprise Java show investments in Java continuing to rise as organizations move to the cloud. During this transition, standardizing on a single Java platform across the desktop, datacenter, and the hybrid cloud reduces risk and improves efficiency for both developers and IT. We see the Red Hat OpenJDK offering as a solid and fully supported path forward for those organizations looking to consolidate and standardize their Java platform across multiple environments.”

A Red Hat subscription provides the latest enterprise-ready software, trusted knowledge, enhanced product security, and technical support from engineers making software the open source way. Red Hat’s award-winning support organization and deep roots in the Java Ecosystem position Red Hat as a valuable partner for organizations building and deploying business-critical Java applications wherever they choose to deploy them. Red Hat has been an active member of the OpenJDK community since 2007 and has contributed to and led various aspects of the project, such as the 64-bit ARMv8 port, AArch64 for OpenJDK, and development of the Shenandoah garbage collector. Red Hat has also served in stewardship roles for both OpenJDK 6 and OpenJDK 7.

In addition to distributing and providing life cycle support for OpenJDK, the Red Hat Middleware portfolio of open-source Java products also support OpenJDK on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Microsoft Windows. These products are used by Red Hat customers to create, integrate, and automate modern business applications and processes, giving users full-stack support from the operating system through to application services from a single vendor.