Azul is all about Java, claiming to be the largest company that is focused on everything Java and the JVM, or the Java Virtual Machine. It also boasts having the largest Java engineering team after Oracle with over 100 tech partners creating joint solutions for various use cases from different industries.
But what does this all translate to, and what does it do for a current cloud industry phenomenon called the Cloud Paradox?
This phenomenon states a contradictory scenario whereby organisations want to take advantage of all the benefits of cloud – agility, flexibility, elasticity, and more – but they want to do so without blowing up their costs.
But, first things first… what exactly does Azul do?
Dean Vaughan, Vice President of Azul in APAC explained that in essence Azul is all about improving the performance of Java.
It does not improve the coding language or the coding experience for developers, and instead, it enhances the performance of the Java application that sits on the layer above it, which is the JVM.
This Cloud Paradox phenomenon states a contradictory scenario whereby organisations want to take advantage of all the benefits of cloud – agility, flexibility, elasticity, and more – but they want to do so without blowing up their costs.
“So, we don’t get involved in writing better code for the application,” he added, driving home the point that Azul improves the environment within which Java apps reside. But, how can the infrastructure below the Java app help to improve the app’s performance?
The Vanguard survey and the Cloud Paradox
The benefits of cloud are undeniable, and yet, because of the way it currently works, Vanguard research commissioned by Azul discovered that of over 2000 Java developers they surveyed, 51-percent admitted to costs of their cloud usage having spiralled up.
These are due to reasons like rapid scaling of the cloud, lack of governance and controls, and over-provisioning. Spinning up virtual machines for applications and workloads is convenient as it should be, but when left unchecked the costs become high.
Part of the reason for this is that cloud services like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure, have their own Open Source Java Development Kit (JDK). “That Java is an open source version and tends not to be optimised,” Dean said.
Rather than renegotiating contracts for lower pricing, Dean’s advice especially for mid-tier organisations that do not have the luxury of economies of scale, is to tweak other aspects of their cloud usage.
This open source version leads to usage of standard compute resources for example, when there could be an enhanced version that optimises the use of precious compute resources.
Dean talked about how use of open source JDKs leads to rising cost which continue to spiral out of control because it is near impossible to stop workloads that are already in production environments and providing live services to customers.
Rather than renegotiating contracts for lower pricing, Dean’s advice especially for mid-tier organisations that do not have the luxury of economies of scale, is to tweak other aspects of their cloud usage.
“Take a look at your infrastructure. Take a look at your JVM – is there a better option out there? Can I run a higher performing JVM for my applications that will enable me to reduce the amount of compute resources that I need?” Dean offered.
Prime and Core
Azul has two products – an open source community driven product called Core which has huge vendors like Red Hat, Oracle, and more contributing code to. Then there is Prime, an enhanced version of Core that has been engineered to run better.
So it is all essentially the same source code, but Prime is tweaked to do certain functions better like ‘garbage collection’ and ‘warm up’, which translates to better performance.
“We are looking at the way that Java functions, and enhancing that significantly,” Dean explained and added that if a customer’s pain point is expensive cloud costs, then Azul is able to perform with less compute resources which translates to lower costs.
In the horizon – more cloud
Java was created 30 years ago during a time when cloud technologies did not exist.
“It was written as a standalone technology because back then it was all standalone servers and PCs. The cloud didn’t exist, so notions like elasticity, flexibility, and so on were not taken into consideration.
“What we are doing is innovating Java in a way that says, ‘Hey, hold on… how can we get Java more cloud-ready? How can we leverage all of the benefits of the cloud for better performance of Java?’”
Dean admits it’s a different thinking whereby instead of the customer having to pay their own compute, or go out to buy more infrastructure to run services, Azul can carve out different functions of the JVM and offer these functions as a cloud service to customers.
All this without any lag in performance, Dean said.
According to the Vanguard report there is potential for up to 50-percent savings because customers would be running a far more enhanced version of their JVMs, which does not require as much compute.
“Even though we are all about Java, it is about reducing the cost of the Java environment, improving the performance of your Java environment, and being an alternative to the “dauntingly expensive” licensing costs from our major competitor out there.”
“And if you move the JIT (just in time) controller to the cloud, we can help your workloads perform faster and cheaper and better than when it was in your environment,” Dean said.
Looking ahead
“I am very channel-focused, particularly when we are an organisation of this size making the investments and expanding the way we are… if we are going to scale we need the channel,” Dean said.
This is especially because of how POC-intensive Azul currently is, which requires having local partners to run pilots for potential customers.
“I really see the channel; particularly loyal partners who invest and undergo our certification programme; as an extension of my organisation. I just value them so much.”
Dean also talked about license consultants who help organisations understand their licensing costs and exposure to big vendors. When customers look up consultants to understand what kind of license exposure they have and ask for ways to mitigate, Dean said this becomes business opportunity for Azul.
“Even though we are all about Java, it is about reducing the cost of the Java environment, improving the performance of your Java environment, and being an alternative to the “dauntingly expensive” licensing costs from our major competitor out there,” Dean said.
