The technology industry has always been prone to hype. Today, the obsession with artificial intelligence (AI) is almost overwhelming, and as someone who has worked with Java for over 25 years, I must admit to a certain degree of envy. It is no surprise that as AI and machine learning continue to trend, computer science graduates are gravitating towards the Python programming language since it plays such an integral role in this world.
That said, I think it would be a mistake to put all your eggs in the AI basket. If you are a graduate or already working in the IT industry checking your 'Mirror, mirror on the wall' and thinking whether your future is in Python or Java, then I would like to convince you that Java is, in fact, the best of all. .
You can say I'm biased, but there are huge opportunities for programmers who want to turn their sights to Java in 2024. The noise around AI may attract attention, but its appeal will wax and wane as the discipline matures. If you want more certainty in a career in IT, then Java is very much the current, mature technology in the enterprise.
Reasons why Java knowledge is in demand
There is a business reality in the world of business technology that is underscored by Hackerrank's early 2023 analysis of the skills most in demand by employers. In that ranking, Java was clearly in first place. Without a doubt, an exciting time to be a Java developer.
Why do I believe this? There are many good reasons why Java will continue to lead its demand among IT skills in 2024, but let me boil them down to the three most notable:
1. Java is everywhere
We conducted our annual State of Java research which confirmed that it is being used in the majority of enterprise applications and IT infrastructure environments. This universality means that there are significant opportunities for those with Java skills. However, a major issue we have encountered is version complexity. Our analysis suggests that many companies are using more than one version of Java, from JDK 6 and 7 to JDK 8, 11, and 17. In an enterprise environment, downtime has real financial consequences, so knowing that there are so many versions of Java in this suite Clashes create complexity and, more worryingly, security vulnerabilities.
We saw with the Log4j vulnerability how much potential damage could be caused if the code is not up to date. In fact, recent research from Veracode suggests that many companies have not yet fully updated their Java code base to protect against future breaches. The bottom line is that businesses will need people with Java skills to ensure applications remain stable and secure and there will be a constant demand for business support to provide essential fixes, security patches and expertise to support these teams.
As organizations strive to transform their enterprise IT environments, it is critical that the underlying Java applications and infrastructure are optimized. This creates opportunities for programmers, because in working with our customers we have also found that optimizing Java environments has had a significant positive effect on the use of cloud computing.
Historically, we have found that customers pay for more public cloud capacity than they use, but by optimizing their Java-based applications and infrastructure they can significantly improve performance, which in turn reduces the number of nodes they need in the cloud. . We've also seen examples where organizations had running instances on standby because they were concerned about Java setup times, which also adds unnecessary costs.
A good Java coder will be seen as a great asset to an organization if it can generate savings on public cloud expenses and improve IT performance.
2. Java is alive and well
While Oracle may own the brand, there is an incredibly strong open source community, underscoring the health of the technology. This community contributes innovations and develops Java-based frameworks, libraries, and tools, ensuring its continued relevance in the enterprise. More than 9 million developers use Java to create applications for everything from smart cards to enterprise servers to the cloud.
Java powers more than 4,500 branded products. Additionally, there is a well-established standards structure that gives companies confidence that the technology will be developed consistently and reliably. You only have to look at the ChatGPT dependency concerns highlighted during the recent uncertainty surrounding the OpenAI leadership team to understand why enterprise users can't become dependent on a technology that is not stable or dominated by one player.
The fact that Java has so many contributors and established ways of operating means that those with Java skills can also be assured that there will be opportunities for them in the future.
3. Java is at a turning point
In early 2023, Oracle announced that it would be changing its pricing policy for Java, which upset many in the community. Based on our conversations with customers, we are increasingly seeing alternative non-Oracle Java distributions. Clearly, this increases demand for Java skills, but more importantly, this disruption will lead to greater innovation as other vendors look to provide solutions that not only match but improve on what Oracle already offers, such as delivering more distributed architectures. ; faster start/warm-up times; JVM with higher performance; and telemetry to monitor vulnerabilities in the underlying Java code.
These three factors ensure the future of Java, as we will see new developments and applications of the technology that will maintain its vitality. In turn, this will create opportunities for people to make a name for themselves by contributing to future developments in the community, suggesting that Java will be around long after all the hype around other technologies has died down.
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