As interest grows in microservices and containers, Java developers have struggled to make applications smaller and faster to meet today’s demands and requirements. In the modern computing environment, applications must respond to requests quickly and efficiently, be suitable for running in volatile environments such as virtual machines or containers, and support rapid development. Because of this, Java, and popular Java runtimes, are sometimes considered inferior to runtimes in other languages such as Node.js and Go.
The Java language and the Java platform have been very successful over the years, preserving Java as the predominant language in current use. Analysts have estimated the global application server market size at $15.84 billion in 2020, with expectations of growing at a rate of 13.2% from 2021 to 2028. Additionally, tens of millions of Java developers worldwide work for organizations that run their businesses using Java. Faced with today’s challenges, these organizations need to adapt and adopt new ways of building and deploying applications. Forgoing Java for other application stacks isn’t a choice for many organizations. It would involve re-training their development staff and re-implementing processes to release and monitor applications in production.