Insight
The rising cost of Java: a bitter brew for businesses
By James White, Digital Workplace Practice Lead at Prosource.it
Once upon a time there was a free programming language called Java. It was beloved by programmers throughout the land. Commonly used and found in businesses of all sizes. Then Java was bought by Oracle and they started to charge for its use. This is where our tale of woe begins.
From free to chargeable
In the 30 or so years that it has been available, Java has become entrenched in most businesses in one form or another. In 2019, Oracle began charging by user creating a cost that many businesses had never considered in their budgets before. It was already widely used and the disruption of developing something new meant that the licensing fee was, in many cases, just accepted. This changed in 2023 when Oracle launched the Java Standard Edition Universal Subscription.
The new charging model means that a business must buy a licence for every employee – regardless of whether they use Java or not. The definition of employee is all full-time and part time workers – whether directly or indirectly employed. This means it includes contractors, outsourcers and agents. For some businesses, particularly those with lots of part-time workers or contractors, their licensing costs could explode. Oracle is now auditing businesses to see if they have Java installed and Gartner calculates by 2026 one in five organisations will have had a Java licensing audit.
For a business with 3,000 employees.
1995 – 2018 = nothing
2019 – 300 desktop user licenses @$1.75 pm = $6,300
2023 – 3,000 employees @$10.50 pm = $378,000
Time to make a choice
Having painted a very stark picture, there are options and it is better to get ahead of the issue. The first option is simply to pay the fee. Nothing needs to change and you can just continue using everything as you already have, it’s just going to cost a lot more year on year.
The second option is to move away to a free, alternative version of Java. This might seem like more work, but it would save a lot of money in the long term. The first step is an audit of the environment to identify instances of Java, this is critical because even a single, redundant instance will leave you open to charges. Having confirmed what Java is being used for, if it is an application that is still needed, there are free versions, such as Azure’s Java which could be implemented instead. Moving to a new system is going to take time, which is why it is better to do it sooner rather than later.
What to do next
The new Java model is so wide reaching, it’s not the same as other licensing negotiations where it’s simply a matter of making sure software is removed from redundant accounts so you only pay for what you use. You are paying based on your headcount, so it is important to get your sums right.
There are alternatives and the switchover process would probably cost significantly less than a year of licensing. Just don’t leave it too late to find out – the auditors could be knocking on the door at any point.
At prosource.it we are very experienced at supporting businesses through technological change to find the most effective and best value solution. If you would like to talk more about your options around Java please get in touch.
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