VMware released a Spring Boot 3.0 update this week for building microservices-based Java applications based on the latest Long Term Support release for the Java Standard Edition (SE) platform.
Michael Minella, senior director of software engineering at VMware, said the latest edition of the framework supports Java 17. The hope is that adding this support will encourage organizations to move from Java 8 to the latest long-term platform release without requiring multiple updates to other previously released editions of Java SE.
Java 17 Chronicle Support
Starting with chronicle-bom-2.22ea26, all new versions can run in Java 17 when run in the class path (but not yet in the path of the module).
One of the features introduced in Java 17 was “Strongly Encapsulated JDK Internals” as described in JEP 403 with the aim of providing a more robust and secure execution environment. Because Chronicle leverages tight integration with a small number of internal JDK components to maintain consistent high performance, a few steps are required to migrate to Java 17.
Containers are the focus
In addition to Java, containerization applications have grown dramatically in importance for cloud computing. According to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s latest annual survey, 93% of respondents are currently using or plan to use containers in production. New Relic’s analysis of application data shows that this trend also applies to Java, as more than 70% of Java applications reporting to New Relic do so from a container.
Of course, containers change the way developers use their processing and memory resources. Containerized engineers are much more likely to run applications with fewer than four cores, and are more likely to pursue smaller memory settings. Developers need to be aware of how these decisions might affect other important applications such as garbage collection, as the instinct to run smaller might limit the benefits of tools designed for larger environments.
Should you jump on the Java 17 hype-train?
As painful as some migrations are sometimes, it might be a good idea to migrate to Java 17. Of course, this depends on how many dependencies you have. We mentioned that Java17 offers better performance and better optimization in terms of code. Imagine being able to provide the same functionality with less code. Also, the code would be more readable for other developers. This is a huge plus as some dependencies stop supporting certain Java versions.
In conclusion, if you are using Java 8, I strongly recommend you migrate to Java 11. If, however, you are using Java 11, I suggest you review the changes thoroughly. If the upgrade is easy and you will benefit from the newly introduced features, feel free to do so. Remember that as software engineers, time is our most precious resource. If it would take too long and provide no benefit, migration would not be necessary. At least, not for now.