According to developer surveys, Java is one of the top three programming languages, and its use continues to grow. While Java has long been the workhorse language for business applications, there has been little data available about how enterprises are really using Java. This first-ever State of Java in the Enterprise report uncovers the latest trends in Java – from its uses and challenges to the plans for organizations of all sizes.
Highlights of 2023 Java trends
The results of this report are based on a global survey of 879 technology leaders and practitioners in organizations across various industries. Here we highlight a few insights from the report, but you can download the full report for a complete view of 2023 Java trends.
Enterprises continue investments in Java
Organizations continue to expand their investments in Java, with 70 percent building new full-stack Java applications, 69 percent building new Java backends, and 48 percent creating new applications that combine JavaScript or TypeScript frontends with a Java backend. In addition, a majority (57 percent) are investing in the modernization of existing applications, with a significant minority moving existing Java applications to the cloud.
The shift to Java 17 is well underway
Over a year after its release, the shift to Java 17 is now well underway. Over a quarter (26 percent) of respondents are already on Java 17 or a newer version. Another 21 percent are currently upgrading, and 26 percent plan to upgrade in the next 12 months. Only 16 percent have no current plans to upgrade.
Maintainability and security are top motivations for modernizing
Respondents were given the opportunity to rank their motivations for modernizing their Java applications. A large majority (83 percent) ranked maintainability as one of their top three motivators, with 32 percent of all respondents ranking it as their primary motivator. Security risks were also important, with 57 percent ranking it in their top three and 20 percent ranking it as their primary motivator.
Spring grows, Swing slows
By examining the net changes in the planned use of technologies (the percentage of respondents planning to increase use minus the percentage planning to decrease use), we can see the clear shift away from older Java technologies from the desktop and early web eras, including Swing, JSF, and JavaFX.
Spring Boot is the clear winner, with a net 50 percent of respondents planning to increase usage. Despite the already ubiquitous use of Java in the survey respondents, a net 40 percent of respondents plan to increase Java usage further. Frameworks such as Vaadin Flow, Spring Framework, Quarkus, Hilla, and React are also expected to see significant net increases in adoption.
A word about our survey
The results of this report are pulled from our global State of Java survey conducted between November 7th and December 5th, 2022. The survey gained 879 responses from technology leaders and practitioners in organizations of all sizes across various industries. Respondents were sourced from public social media channels and Vaadin’s database. More than half (54%) of respondents do not use Vaadin Flow or Hilla.
To encourage sharing, the material in this report is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. You may copy and redistribute the material in the report but must provide attribution to “2023 Vaadin State of Java in the Enterprise Report”. See the license terms here.