Enterprise Java applications power global commerce, healthcare, government and countless other industries. These systems must be scalable, secure and resilient – requirements that exceed what a simple web server can provide. That’s where enterprise Java application servers come in. In this short guide you’ll learn what enterprise Java application servers are, how they work, why enterprises rely on them, and why Payara Platform is the leading choice for modern Jakarta EE and MicroProfile workloads.

If you’re a Java developer, you probably feel sandwiched between frameworks nearing end-of-life, fresh Log4j headlines and endless security patch cycles. Fixing one vulnerability only to uncover another can feel like running on a treadmill.

With Jakarta EE 11 now officially released, you are likely eager to explore its new capabilities but setting up your first application may take longer than you want. That’s where the latest version of Payara Starter steps in, giving you a fast, hassle-free way to get a fully functional Jakarta EE 11 project up and running. Read more to learn how!

Cloud adoption has transformed how developers build and scale applications, but it also brings new challenges in controlling costs. As cloud bills grow alongside usage, designing cost-efficient cloud architectures becomes essential for developers, DevOps specialists, architects and team leaders.

This post explores key strategies for optimizing cloud expenditure and align it with actual needs without incurring cloud wastage spend.

As a Java developer, you may not control runtime support contracts, but what you can do is help your team stay ahead of platform shifts that impact stability, compliance and portability. And here’s a big one:

📢 Red Hat officially announced that JBoss EAP 7 reached the end of Maintenance Support and entered Extended Life Support Phase 1 (ELS-1) on June 30, 2025.

This marks the beginning of a gradual end-of-support timeline that affects all Java EE 8 applications running on JBoss EAP 7.x. The change was confirmed by Red Hat as part of its product lifecycle updates, and it’s a clear sign that organizations need to plan for what's next. If your manager asks you for an overview on what's happening and the options at hands, this blog post is for you: we summarized everything you need to know and what you can do for your Java EE 8 applications.

You've probably been in that hallway conversation (or Teams/Zoom meeting) where DevOps, SRE and Platform Engineering all get thrown around. Sometimes these words are used interchangeably, as if they were synonyms. Sometimes they indicate different aspects, but nobody really agrees on what they are.

If you can relate, know that you're not alone. That's why we decided to walk through the core differences (and overlaps) of what each term means for us at Payara. 

Kubernetes, also known as K8s has become the de facto platform for orchestrating modern microservices architectures, promising resilience, scalability and faster deployment pipelines for Java applications. But for many developers, that promise often hides a thorny reality: Kubernetes is powerful—but also painfully complex.

The August 2025 release brings important security fixes and stability improvements across the Payara Platform. This month's releases include Payara Platform Community 6.2025.8 and Payara Platform Community 7.1 Alpha4, Payara Platform Enterprise 6.29.0 and 5.78.0, with a focus on addressing critical security vulnerabilities and enhancing platform reliability.

Many enterprise Java application developers are facing the same challenge: handling the many legacy systems used by their organizations. Modernizing these is critical to improving scalability, performance and security. Yet, many teams are still supporting workloads based on Java SE 8 or earlier versions, despite newer versions and modern frameworks offering significant advantages. This aversity to refreshing such applications stems precisely from the importance these pieces of software have within an organization, as their disruption can considerably impact business operations.  

This blog is your practical guide to successfully navigating that shift: from evaluating legacy codebases to leveraging cloud-native architectures, CI/CD pipelines and runtime tools to futureproof your enterprise Java applications while streamlining key modernization efforts. 

Cloud computing has transformed how enterprises deploy and manage applications. A cloud server provides an on-demand, scalable infrastructure that enables businesses to launch services without heavy upfront investments in hardware. Whether used for hosting, data management, or large-scale application deployment, cloud servers are now integral to modern IT ecosystems. This is especially true for Java EE and Jakarta EE applications, where cloud-native environments based on cloud application servers deliver agility, resilience, and cost-efficiency.  

In this blog, we look at what cloud application servers are, how they work, key benefits, use cases and real-world applications. 

As enterprise Java continues to evolve, developers are constantly looking for ways to build faster, cleaner, and more efficient applications. That’s where AI comes in - and it's changing the game for Jakarta EE development.

We’re excited to share our latest resource: 'AI Tools for Jakarta EE – Power Up Your Java Enterprise Development'. This free guide explores how cutting-edge AI tools can streamline your workflow, reduce repetitive coding, and accelerate project delivery.

Introduction

The release of Jakarta EE 11 represents another significant milestone in the evolution of the Java Enterprise framework. With over 25 years of history since its first release in 1999, Jakarta EE has continuously evolved while maintaining its core principles of stability and enterprise-grade reliability.

When the SIFMA Foundation needed to modernize its aging financial education platform used by thousands of students, it turned to Payara Platform Enterprise for a scalable, reliable Java-based solution that could run seamlessly on IBM Advanced Interactive eXecutive (AIX) systems. The result: boost in user capacity per machine, streamlined deployments, and the flexibility to innovate continuously. With Payara’s responsive enterprise support and robust middleware technologies, SIFMA transitioned its mission-critical system to a modern architecture that is empowering the application and the organization to grow its impact, serve more students, and deploy updates confidently and efficiently.

Enterprise Jakarta EE applications require extensive tooling during development - Maven for dependency management, full JDKs for compilation, and various build utilities. However, production environments need only the compiled application and runtime server like Payara Server or Payara Micro. Multi-stage Docker builds bridge this gap by separating build and runtime concerns, producing dramatically smaller and more secure container images for Payara deployments.

The July 2025 release brings meaningful updates across the Payara Platform family, with improvements to database connectivity, critical bug fixes for CDI memory management, and comprehensive component upgrades.

This month's releases include Payara Platform Community 6.2025.7 (DOWNLOAD HERE), Enterprise 6.28.0, Enterprise 5.77.0 (FREE TRIAL), and Payara 7 Alpha 3.

The Java ecosystem is rapidly evolving, and we'd love to hear how you and your team are approaching this transformation. We’re running a short industry survey to understand how Java teams are modernizing today, what tools and runtimes they rely on, and where platform engineering fits into their journey. 

Earlier today, the Eclipse Foundation together with its vendor members, partners and community has announced the release of Jakarta EE 11, the latest version of its enterprise Java platform. Building on the Core Profile (Dec 2024) and Web Profile (Mar 2025), this release brings powerful new features aimed at boosting developer productivity and simplifying cloud-native development.

Enterprise Java has powered backend systems and key applications for three decades, evolving steadily alongside application architecture trends, from on-premise monoliths and service-oriented architectures to today's cloud-first containerized microservices. Currently, developers can typically  choose from three key enterprise Java frameworks: Jakarta EE, Quarkus and Spring / Spring Boot. 

In this post, we take a practical look at two major enterprise Java frameworks: Jakarta EE, the continuation of the long-established Java EE/J2EE standard and Quarkus, a newer framework that is growing in popularity. 

Last week, we announced the new edition of the Virtual Payara Conference, going live on Tuesday the 8th of July (REGISTER HERE), where we'll help you discover some practical strategies for your Java journey.

Multi-cloud developments can offer real operational advantages. However, careful and strategic planning is key to maximize the gains. In fact, without clear operating models or setups, teams can experience costly missteps and cloud spent wastage. 

At Payara Services, we work closely with organizations deploying mission-critical enterprise Java applications across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. As a result, our engineering team has been actively engaged in helping companies succeed in their multi-cloud strategies, and we know first-hand what works best as well as common pitfalls. In this blog post, we look at what multi-cloud is and share key insights and tips to optimize your multi-cloud projects.

The new edition of Virtual Payara Conference is coming on the 8th of July 2025 and this time it's all about discovering practical strategies for your Java journey – whether you use Jakarta EE, Spring, or Quarkus! 

Many of today’s applications must process enormous volumes of data while providing instantaneous responses.Traditional blocking architectures often struggle to meet these demands, leading to sluggish performance and poor user experiences. Reactive programming is a coding paradigm that can help address these issues by using asynchronous, non-blocking operations to change how systems are built.

This blog posts explores the core principles, advantages and best practices of reactive programming in Java to help you create scalable, resilient and high-performance applications. 

The June 2025 release cycle brings incremental developments across the Payara Platform family, with significant updates to our Community 6.2025.6, Enterprise 6.27.0, and Enterprise 5.75.0 editions, plus the latest alpha release of Payara 7. These releases focus on enhanced diagnostic capabilities, development workflow improvements, and modernized component upgrades.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing enterprise Java applications, unlocking new capabilities, and driving unprecedented innovation and automation. But how can you bring the power of AI and LLMs like OpenAI or Ollama into your Jakarta EE/MicroProfile projects, without wrestling with complex, low-level integrations?

For developers, especially those leveraging the Payara Platform, the open-source SmallRye LLM project offers an elegant solution. It simplifies the creation of AI-powered features, often referred to as 'AI agents,' by integrating LLM capabilities through familiar Jakarta EE paradigms like CDI (Contexts and Dependency Injection).

In this blog, we’ll delve into how SmallRye LLM works and explore its integration within the Payara Platform, demonstrating how it supports the creation of AI Jakarta EE applications. We'll then guide you through a practical 'payara-car-booking' demo, showcasing AI-driven conversations and seamless backend integration."

As more and more organizations embrace the cloud, Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions for application deployment and management are becoming more popular among development and DevOps teams. The promise of faster deployments, simpler maintenance, and more time for innovation is hard to ignore for teams of any size. But what are professionals really saying about PaaS and how can you make the most of it for your next project? 

We dug through candid insights from engineers, CTOs and founders and summarized our key findings in this blog post.

Planning to develop and deploy an application but unsure where to start? Whether you’re new to software engineering or managing a team of developers for the first time, you’ve likely heard you need a server—but what kind? Aren’t all servers essentially the same? 

Not exactly. Servers play specialized roles in hosting and running applications, with web servers and application servers serving distinct purposes. In this post, we’ll explore what each does, how they differ, and help you decide which one is right for your project. 

Over the past decades, the technology landscape has undergone relentless change, with innovations rapidly reshaping how applications are developed and deployed. In such a fast-moving environment, few technologies have demonstrated true staying power. Yet, Java has defied the odds. As we mark 30 years of Java and 25 years of enterprise Java, it’s evident that these platforms haven’t just endured but have thrived—constantly evolving, adapting and proving their enduring value to developers worldwide.

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is changing the cybersecurity and regulatory compliance landscape for financial institutions in the EU. In effect, DORA is now binding, with regulators shifting from guidance to active enforcement. For developers building or maintaining financial applications, understanding DORA’s requirements and how to meet them is essential.

In this post, we’ll break down what DORA is, why it's important and what it means for developers. You'll also get a glimpse on how to meet the regulatory requirements with your enterprise Java applications. 

Almost any developer looking to leverage containers turns to Kubernetes (K8s) for orchestration. However, with its complexity comes security risks, particularly misconfigurations, which remain one of the most critical attack vectors in cloud-native environments. In effect, K8s misconfigurations can lead to data breaches, privilege escalations and service disruptions. 

This blog examines key technical security challenges associated with K8s and demonstrates how to mitigate these risks through platform engineering. 

Application server migrations often come with apprehension. While companies look forward to better performance and/or support, enhanced security as well as functionalities, they can feel like navigating a project full of potential pitfalls. Among these, a particularly pressing concern is whether the application development team is prepared to handle the complexity of the migration process.

After all, a successful migration isn’t just about the technology—it’s about the people implementing it. Addressing this fear is crucial to ensuring a smooth transition and unlocking the full potential of your new platform. Let’s have a look at how organizations can address this challenge while improving their skillsets.

Jakarta Persistence (formerly JPA) is a cornerstone of enterprise Java development, offering a standardized approach to object relational mapping (ORM). But when it comes to selecting a persistence provider, the decision isn’t one-size-fits-all. Hibernate, EclipseLink and OpenJPA are three leading options, each with unique strengths. But how do you know which is right for your project?

In this blog, we’ll give you a short overview of the core features, advantages and ideal use cases of these Jakarta Persistence providers to help you make an informed decision.

The May 2025 release brings updates across Payara Platform Community 6.2025.5, Payara Platform Enterprise 6.26.0 and 5.75.0. These focus on bug fixes and component upgrades. Let's have a closer look at what you can find in this release. 

Platform Engineering is rapidly becoming a must-have approach for modern software teams looking to streamline operations, scale development efficiently, reduce cognitive load on developers while enhancing their productivity. But while the word is on everyone's lips, do we really know what it means? When it comes to middleware solutions, how can a platform engineering-based solution help users?

After two decades as Java's dominant build tool (no offense to Gradle), Maven is undergoing its most significant evolution. While the official Maven documentation outlines the technical changes in Maven 4, this blog post focuses specifically on what these changes mean for enterprise developers working with Jakarta EE, Spring Boot and Quarkus.

Choosing the right application server is critical for the success of enterprise-grade applications. While Red Hat’s JBoss is a commonly implemented solution, organizations may want to explore alternatives to their current applications servers and runtimes. Sure, migrations can be intimidating, but if JBoss is no longer a perfect fit for a specific application, a move can help meet specific requirements, such as cutting licensing costs or adopting cloud-native approaches, as well as unlock new opportunities or capabilities.  

If you're here, chances are you’re considering your options. In this blog, we’ll discuss what JBoss offers, why businesses look for alternatives as well as what key contenders to look for when exploring alternatives. 

PCI DSS cybersecurity requirements are relevant for all sorts of organizations, whether you’re a financial institution or a business with customers and transactions. And, while there are already many laws, regulations, and standards designed to protect personal data, this standard is particularly focused on card transactions. 

In this blog post, we explain the PCI-DSS, its standards, requirements, levels, and certification. 

For this episode, I had a really interesting chat with Richard Fichtner, the leader of JUG Oberpfalz. Some of you may recognise Richard from many Java industry events, as he’s a frequent conference speaker, but he’s also known as the face of the JCon Conference as one of the organisers of this very popular Java event.

Richard is a Java Champion with 20 years of experience in the software industry. He’s the CEO and Principal Software Architect at XDEV, he’s actively contributing to the open source community through projects like RapidClipse and advocating for best practices in Apache Maven.

Payara offers an extensive range of developer tools designed to support Java and Jakarta EE developers at every stage of the application lifecycle. This comprehensive blog post explores the complete ecosystem of Payara developer tools and how they streamline enterprise Java development workflows.

The April 2025 Payara Platform release is here, bringing key performance upgrades, enhanced log customization, and essential component updates across all editions. This month's releases include Payara Platform Community 6.2025.4, Payara Platform Enterprise 6.25.0 and Payara Platform Enterprise 5.74.0.

Let’s break down what’s new.

What is JBang?

JBang is a tool that lets you run Java code with zero build setup. It handles dependencies, compilation, and execution with a single command - making Java as easy to run as a script. With JBang, you can:

My guests for this episode of the Payara Podcast JUG Spotlight series are the leaders of Chicago and Seattle Java User Groups – Mary Grygleski and Freddy Guime. 

During our chat, we discussed Mary’s and Freddy’s journey to becoming JUG leaders, we talked about the opportunities that come with being part of a local Java User Group, whether as organisers or members. We also explored the impact of AI on modern Java development, which unsurprisingly has sparked significant interest among both new and existing community members. However, it also presents a challenge—how to ensure the next generation of developers remains effective in a workplace where AI is increasingly integrated into development workflows.

In our latest release blog post, we announced the availability of a new version of Payara Platform Community 7 Alpha, which gives developers a more snapshot view of the upcoming Jakarta EE 11 features, helping them get closer to the technology. In particular, the March release of Payara Platform Community delivers game-changing concurrency improvements.

Let's dive into what this means for your applications and your projects as well as how it can enhance developer productivity. 

Much like corporate offices, applications are critical assets at the core of modern business operations. As they hold valuable information by handling and processing data that support essential workflows, they are prime targets for hackers. As such, just as physical office spaces require security systems to protect valuable information and resources, applications need robust defenses to ensure data integrity, resilience and regulatory compliance. 

A secure environment relies on two complementary strategies: tools that identify vulnerabilities and proactive defenses that prevent cyber intrusions. Together, these approaches create a secure, robust framework that safeguards both the business and its users. Let’s explore how these essential strategies work and how they can deliver a synergetic effect in the context of application security. 

Devnexus 2025 has wrapped up, and what an incredible event it was! As one of the largest gatherings of Java developers, this year’s conference was particularly special as we celebrated Java’s 30th anniversary. Developers, architects, and technology enthusiasts from around the world gathered in Atlanta from March 4-6, sharing knowledge, networking, and exploring the latest advancements in the Java ecosystem.

Git, the weirdly named version control system developed by Linus Torvalds,  is an amazing tool for developers, and us Java developers are no exception. While most of us are familiar with the basics like git commit, git push and git pull, Git has a lot of lesser-known features that can significantly improve your workflow. In this post, we’ll explore five hidden Git tips tailored specifically for Java development. These tips will help you manage your codebase more efficiently, debug issues faster and collaborate more effectively. Let’s go!

For development teams managing Jakarta EE applications, staying updated with the latest improvements is important for maintaining secure, stable, and high-performing applications. This month, we're excited to announce updates across our entire product line, with significant enhancements to both Community and Enterprise editions.

Companies sometimes contemplate migrating their enterprise Java applications to a different runtime to optimize costs, benefit from greater technical support, achieve better performance, scalability or new functionalities. However, when it comes to taking active steps towards implementing an alternative application server, many decide not to proceed. A recurring concern for multiple companies is whether such migrations can be done securely, without compromising data integrity or compliance with stringent regulations.

So, are application server migrations secure? How can teams ensure the right robustness and resilience measures are in place? Let’s dig in the world of runtime cybersecurity and migration planning.

May 2025 marks a monumental milestone in software development: Java turns 30. The impact of this language on the technology landscape is undeniable, forming the backbone of today’s digital world. Its anniversary is a celebration of the code as well as the innovation, adaptability and thriving global community built around Java. The return of JavaOne, which used to be the ultimate gathering for the Java community, offers a perfect moment to reflect on the technology's legacy, its continued relevanceand its achievements. 

If you rely on mission-critical applications for your business operations, making sure they run at all times is a must. However, issues can arise for a variety of reasons. In such situations, swift and efficient resolution is critical.  

When issues arise in a complex server environment, effective troubleshooting is a cornerstone of delivering reliable, high-performing enterprise applications. That’s why we’re excited to introduce you to the Diagnostics Tool. This is an innovative data collection solution designed to improve troubleshooting, issue resolution and uptime for Jakarta EE applications running on Payara Platform Enterprise. 

At the latest Conf42 Internet of Things (IoT) 2024 conference, our Payarans deliver a keynote, titled "At the Edge of Robotic Applications". The presentation discussed the increasing need for efficient data handling and cloud computing in industrial robotics applications to create future-oriented Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) framework. The talk highlighted how edge computing can support such efforts and the role of application server technologies to create smart robotized systems within factories.

If you missed the Conf42 IoT event on December 19, 2024, you can read more about how to create IIoT-oriented robot applications with edge computing in this blog post, together with the recording to the original talk.

Deadline Approaching: Keep Your Legacy Java Applications Secure with Payara Platform 4

As companies look to modernize their IT infrastructure to leverage the latest technologies and advance the capabilities of their applications, modernizing legacy systems becomes a top priority. However, for organizations still running Java EE 7 or 8 applications, the challenge lies in finding a fully commercially supported application server that can handle their current applications and environment while allowing a strategic and gradual transition.

If your organization is in this position, you have an important deadline approaching: March 31, 2025.

As organizations modernize their tech stacks, many are re-evaluating their application server choices to ensure they can address their evolving business and technology needs. Recent announcements from IBM regarding the direction of WebSphere have prompted a number of companies to reassess their long-term plans.

While WebSphere remains a reliable solution, these recent updates hint at shifts in focus that may present challenges for businesses and their existing applications. For those navigating these changes, understanding alternative paths and modern platforms has never been more crucial. Let's have a look at key WebSphere alternatives.

JavaLand 2025 is happening from April 1-3, 2025, in Nürburgring, Germany, and Payara will be there! If you’re into Java, want to learn about the latest tech, or just want to connect with fellow developers, don’t miss this event. Our team of Payarans will be sharing practical insights and real-world use cases that you can start using right away to enhance your Java and Jakarta EE projects.

The second episode of the new series of Payara Podcast dedicated to the Java community is here! This time, I had a great pleasure to talk to Simone and Roberto from Torino Java User Group.

Roberto, a seasoned developer with 20+ years in open source, has contributed to projects like Jetty, CometD, and JBoss. Simone, a Java Champion and Eclipse Jetty Project Leader, specializes in high-performance JVM tuning and server-side development. We discuss the evolution of Java communities, the challenges JUGs face, and how we can ensure they continue to thrive.

Today’s developers are tasked with building systems that are not only robust but also agile enough to keep up with evolving user demands. Microservices have emerged as a favorite among engineering teams to address these issues because they decompose applications into independent, manageable services. But how do they work, specifically? What can microservices architectures offer? And how can you adopt this paradigm within your application development team? 

If you want to know what microservices architectures can bring to your team, you’re in the right place. In this blog, we discuss the top benefits of microservices and how developers can easily embrace this approach. 

After a long hiatus, the premier conference for Java developers worldwide, JavaOne, is making a grand return. This year's event is even more special as it coincides with the 30th anniversary of Java. Of course, our Payarans will not miss this event, and we are thrilled to exhibit and present at JavaOne 2025! Mark your calendar and join us from March 18–20, 2025, at Redwood Shores, CA, U.S.

For developers, system administrators and enterprises managing Jakarta EE applications, staying ahead of configuration challenges, security vulnerabilities and performance bottlenecks is very important. The February 2025 releases of Payara Platform Enterprise 6.23.0, 5.72.0, and Payara Platform Community 6.2025.2 introduce key improvements, resolve critical bugs and upgrade essential components to ensure compatibility, stability and enhanced performance. Let’s dive into the details.

One of the largest and longest-running Java conference, Devnexus 2025, is just around the corner and our Payarans are ready to bring cutting-edge insights to the event. If you’re a Java developer eager to explore the latest technology advancements and industry trends, this is an event you don’t want to miss!

Enterprise Java development has evolved significantly from the days of J2EE, which moved to the Eclipse Foundation as Java EE and eventually became Jakarta EE. This progression has provided developers like you and me with a comprehensive platform for building reliable, scalable applications. Let's explore 10 ways Jakarta EE 11 streamlines enterprise development, with special attention to the newly released Jakarta Data 1.0 specification.

In today's Nugget Friday, we're tackling a powerful but often misunderstood feature of Jakarta REST (formerly JAX-RS): filters and filter chains. Whether you're handling security, logging, compression or other cross-cutting concerns, understanding filters is important for building reliable Jakarta REST applications on the Jakarta EE (formerly Java EE) platform. So grab your favorite beverage, and let's dig in!

Java has been a core element of enterprise application development for decades, and its relevance will continue to grow in 2025 and beyond. With its platform independence, scalability and security features as well as active ecosystem, Java offers numerous advantages that can contribute to increased profitability and enhanced business continuity for your organization.

This blog post explores 10 reasons why Java should be the language of choice for your current and future enterprise applications.

For technology companies, cost effectiveness in software and application development isn’t just about saving money. It is about delivering quality products with attractive pricing that help organizations create key opportunities for profitability, sustainable growth and competitive advantage in a marketplace where the competition is fierce and rapidly evolving. When considering middleware technologies, the right solution can help software developers enhance the value of their offering while optimizing capital and operational expenses.  

We are kicking off 2025 with the new series of Payara Podcast dedicated to the Java community, which means that over the next couple of episodes, I will be talking to quite a few Java User Group Leaders, representing JUGs all around the world.

For this January episode, I had a great pleasure to talk to Mike and Barry from Garden State Java User Group.

During our conversation, we explored the importance of Java User Groups and their role in maintaining, supporting and educating Java developers within their local communities. Mike and Barry shared what’s coming to Garden State JUG this year that they are excited about, and the challenges their user group is facing.

January is almost over, and we kicked off the year with a lot of energy and fresh resources! 🎉 We’ve got some great updates and insights to share...so grab a coffee and dive into our top content from January - start reading to enhance your enterprise Java knowledge and skills!

When selecting an application server for your Jakarta EE applications, there are multiple options available. While the Payara Platform, WildFly and JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) have a number of commonalities, they differ in a number of aspects. The choice of one of these three alternatives can significantly impact your development, deployment and operational strategies. In this blog, we’ll explore their common features, differences and how they compare with each other. 

OWASP security principles provide a neat list of proactive controls for CISOs, CSOs, AppSec and DevSecOps teams working to develop secure web and API applications. But what is the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) model? How do the OWASP requirements and methodology contribute to information security standards? 

We're excited to announce the latest releases across our Payara Platform lineup: Community 6.2025.1, Enterprise 5.71.0 and Enterprise 6.22.0. These releases bring significant improvements in a number of areas. We advanced system configuration, delivering greater flexibility and efficiency for your applications to help you build, deploy, and maintain secure, scalable applications with confidence.. Additionally, we've addressed key security concerns, bolstering the platform's resilience against evolving threats, and delivered critical bug fixes to enhance overall stability and reliability.

Continue reading to learn more about what you can find in the January release of the Payara Platform suite of application server technologies for Jakarta EE applications.

Clear and accurate API documentation is essential. It bridges the gap between your REST APIs and the developers who rely on them, ensuring smooth integration and usage. However, creating and maintaining up-to-date documentation often feels like a daunting task, requiring either tedious manual effort or complex tooling.

In this Nugget Friday, we’ll discuss how you can streamline API documentation to deliver outstanding API experiences with minimal overhead.

Sample full stack applications are crucial to support multiple activities, such as testing, validation and experimentation. However, their creation involves repetitive and less value-adding activities that are nonetheless essential. These often require considerable time and resources that can take software developers and engineers like you away from other, more meaningful and stimulating tasks.  

If you are looking for ways to streamline the development of applications for deployment testing, prototyping, proof-of-concept and other purposes, this blog post is for you! It shows you how to leverage artificial intelligence (AI)-based automation with Payara Starter to cut the time needed for one of the fundamental activities that many software specialists dislike, the creation of Entity Relationship (ER) diagrams. 

In the Java ecosystem, two main frameworks stand out for enterprise application development: Jakarta EE (formerly Java EE) and Spring Boot. While both options aim to simplify enterprise Java development, they take distinctly different approaches. This comprehensive comparison will help you make an informed decision on which framework is best suited to support your next project.

One of the most common questions about Jakarta Batch specification is "How do steps actually work under the hood?" Today's nugget takes a look at batch processing in enterprise Java applications by exploring step execution and the different types of steps available in Jakarta Batch. So grab your favorite beverage and let's dig in!

As the year wraps up, we’ve got some holiday treats for Jakarta EE developers! Whether you’re updating legacy applications, improving your testing strategy, or exploring flexible cloud pricing, this month’s resources are here to help you stay on track.

Here’s what we have in store for you! 🎁

A Practical Path Forward for Legacy Systems  

Payara Platform Enterprise 4 is End-of-Life, Long Live Payara Platform Enterprise 5 (and 6) 

If you are a subscriber, it is likely you already know from our extensive resources available on the Payara Tech Blog that Payara Platform Enterprise 6 offers our most modern and up to date Jakarta EE and MicroProfile runtimes.However, there are still workloads running on older releases of the Payara Platform, namely Payara Platform Enterprise 4.If you use Payara Platform Enterprise 4 for mission-critical applications in production environments,this blog post is for you. 

Payara Platform 4 is reaching its End of Life, with the end of its Extended Support scheduled for the first quarter of 2025. To support anyone that cannot immediately transition to newer versions, we introduced the Lifetime Support model to give them time to plan and move to the latest Payara Platform releases, in line with our ongoing commitment to our customers. The Lifetime Support is designed to provide enterprise level support to business-critical applications in order to help these remain stable and secure as companies prepare for the adoption of more recent Payara Platform versions.  

Reliable application runtimes have become increasingly important to organisations in a fast paced digital era. At Payara Services, offers a range of solutions designed to meet the diverse needs of modern enterprises developing solutions on the Jakarta EE (formerly Java EE) Platform, including Payara Platform Enterprise. Let's explore the top application server solutions that can power your business to new heights.

The Jakarta EE Media and Community Challenge initiated by Payara celebrates the innovation and creativity that thrives within the Jakarta EE community. This global competition invited developers, technical writers and technology enthusiasts to share technical content that educates, inspires and fosters collaboration within the Jakarta EE community.

After unveiling the impressive 4th, 3rd and 2nd place winners, the moment we've all been waiting for has arrived—it's time to announce the 1st prize winner!

The Payara Platform December releases bring exciting updates to developers and enterprises, marking significant progress toward the future of application server technology. With key advancements across all editions, this release cycle includes the much-anticipated Payara Platform Community 7 Alpha 3, introducing a ground-breaking step toward Jakarta EE 11 support. Let’s dive into the highlights.

Payara Platform is built by Payara Services in collaboration with our open source, innovative community - and we need your help! Please take a moment to fill in our  survey and assist us in making the best Jakarta EE products we can - it will only take a few minutes. 

Virtual Payara Conference - find out more and register here - is a two-day, free event that brings together industry leaders, developers, and innovators to explore the latest advancements and strategic insights in the world of Java and Jakarta EE. Whether you’re a decision-maker shaping the future of your enterprise or a developer diving deep into new technologies, this event offers something for everyone.

Read on to find out more about the sessions and speakers.

Modern enterprise Java applications built on Jakarta EE require a strong testing strategy to ensure they work reliably. In this post, we'll explore key approaches and tools for effective Jakarta EE application testing, starting with the testing pyramid.

Pay As You Go (PAYG) pricing has arrived for Payara Cloud, making it easier than ever to deploy and run your Jakarta EE and MicroProfile applications in the cloud. This new pricing model is perfect for development environments, testing and small applications that don't require continuous runtime.

The release of Payara Platform Community 7 Alpha 2 marks a significant advancement in Jakarta EE development on the Payara Platform, offering our first implementation of Jakarta EE 11 features. In this blog post, we explain what it means and how it benefits your applications.

Welcome aboard the November edition of the Payara Monthly Catch, bringing you the latest news and insights on Jakarta EE, MicroProfile, application development, DevOps and much more! This month's resources focus on the theme of how to build modern, secure and resilient Jakarta EE applications. To this end, we’re bringing you insights on everything from modernizing legacy Java applications to embracing observability and fault tolerance to keep your systems running smoothly as well as how you can leverage Jakarta EE 11 to power up your applications. 

The Jakarta EE Media and Community Challenge initiated by Payara celebrates the innovation and creativity that thrives within the Jakarta EE community. Designed as a platform to inspire, educate and showcase collaboration, the competition invited developers, tech writers and enthusiasts worldwide to contribute technical content that advances the understanding and application of Jakarta EE.

We already unveiled the 3rd place entry "Jakarta EE based serverless backend-for-frontend", and now it’s time to spotlight the 2nd place winner! Congratulations to Bazlur Rahman for his exceptional entry "Streamlining Jakarta EE 11 Development with Payara and start.jakarta.ee: A Hands-On Guide."

We all know that businesses rely more and more on applications, and that these tend to be complex programs that often interact with various systems. Even more, as technology evolves, software is expected to become even more advanced and sophisticated in the future. As systems and applications become more complex, robust observability strategies become essential for ensuring operational reliability.

Let's have a look at what observability is, what it offers and how it can benefit your Jakarta EE applications.

Are you in London next week? Come and join us for at the 18th LJC Unconference - a full day of discussions, knowledge sharing, learning, and networking with other developers in the industry.

There will be an opening keynote session followed by breakout discussion groups on the topics which are important to you. 

We're excited to announce the latest releases across the Payara Platform family, marking significant strides in our Jakarta EE and MicroProfile runtime offerings. This release brings the introduction of Payara Platform Community 7 Alpha2, updates to Payara Platform Community 6.2024.11 and new versions of Payara Platform Enterprise (5.69.0 and 6.20.0).

Modernizing legacy applications in the cloud era has become an imperative for business success. With customer expectations constantly rising and digital transformation becoming critical for business survival, understanding how to approach legacy application modernization has never been more important.

When building enterprise Java applications on the Jakarta EE platform, database connection management is critical for both performance and stability. One common issue that can severely impact application performance is connection and statement leaks. In this Nugget Friday, we'll explore how Payara Server helps detect and prevent these leaks, ensuring your applications run smoothly and efficiently.

Virtual Payara Conference is coming next month and on Day 2 - Developer Insight - we will help you unlock the future of Jakarta EE development! 

AI Tools for Jakarta EE - 12 December 2024, 3:40pm GMT - Register Here!

Join Gaurav Gupta, Senior Software Engineer at Payara, to witness how AI-powered tools are transforming enterprise application development through real-world, cutting-edge demonstrations. Discover how AI-powered tools enhance productivity and streamline workflows in Apache NetBeans IDE and beyond, from creating a simple hello-world program to developing full-stack applications.

Discover how AI-powered tools are reshaping Jakarta EE development by optimizing the entire development lifecycle. Can't make the date? Register now and watch on-demand later!

The latest version of Jakarta REST (formerly Java API for RESTful Web Services, aka JAX-RS), Jakarta REST 4.0, will bring some notable improvements and changes as part of Jakarta EE 11. This release focuses on modernizing the specification by removing legacy dependencies, enhancing developer convenience, and improving test coverage. Before exploring the key changes, let's first take 37K feet intro to JAX-RS for the new comers to the platform. 

If you’re still managing Java applications on GlassFish middleware, you might be hitting some roadblocks, such as difficulties with automation, lack of integrated monitoring and official support and limited abilities with modern tools. However, there are ways to modernize your current applications. Let's have a look how. 

While we all want maximum uptime for our software systems, failures and downtimes are inevitable. However, these can be minimized and quickly resolved through comprehensive, robust and well-designed fault tolerance mechanisms. This Nugget Friday looks at how to leverage MicroProfile Fault Tolerance. We look at how it operates and explore how its features can help developers address common failure scenarios. Let's dig in!

Have you ever been asked “What is an application server?” by a member of your senior management team, and struggled to explain the application server model? We know how you feel. It’s tough to explain complex software concepts to those who can be easily overwhelmed by even the jargon we’d otherwise use to explain them. 

In this blog post, we explore what an application server is, how it’s different from other kinds of servers, its advantages and disadvantages, and which application server is best for your application infrastructure. And, you won’t need to have an Engineering degree and 6 years’ experience on a software development team to understand it. 

Ensuring consistent performance and early detection of potential system issues in Jakarta EE (formerly Java EE) production deployments are critical in every production deployment. The Payara HealthCheck Service is a built-in tool designed specifically to help you monitor the health of your Payara Server deployments. While often overlooked, this service is an essential asset for operations teams who seek to minimise downtime and maximise system reliability. Let's dive into what the HealthCheck Service does, how it can be configured, and why it's valuable for monitoring your app server's critical components.

Building on the foundational insights from our previous Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) sessions earlier in the summer, this free webinar will update you on the next phase of cyber resilience by moving beyond mere compliance with the Cyber Resilience Act.

From Compliance to Competitive Advantage: Strengthening Cyber Resilience
 10am GMT, 13th of November 2024

Join Julia Apostle (Orrick) and Steve Millidge (Payara) to learn actionable steps for aligning your cyber resilience initiatives with future regulations and innovations, ensuring your organization is prepared to not only meet legal requirements but also drive sustainable, long-term security.

Ahoy ghoulish crew! The October edition of Payara’s Monthly Catch is truly spooktacular! Check out this month's highlights – this month’s edition is packed with must-read guides, bewitching tutorials and technical tricks (and treats!) to keep your enterprise Java/Jakarta EE skills sharp as ever.

The EU’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) 2024 lays down a “legal framework for essential cybersecurity requirements for placing products with digital elements on the Union market” (CRA, 1). These requirements cover “products with digital elements”. The goal is to establish conditions for developing secure software. Software venders must take security seriously thought the entire SDLC. Consequently, the intention is that “hardware and software products are placed on the market with fewer vulnerabilities and that manufacturers take security seriously throughout a product’s lifecycle” (CRA, 2). 

This blog post will answer some basic questions, based on our understanding of the Act. What is the new Cyber Resilience Act in the EU? What is the key focus of the Cyber Resilience Act and who does it affect? When will the EU Cyber Resilience Act come into force? How do software venders comply with its requirements? Are there obligations for other parties too? And does Payara help its customers to comply with their requirements under the Act? 

We're super excited to announce the third edition of the Virtual Payara Conference! This December we will be focusing on Powering High-Performance Enterprise Java Applications.

• Strategic Insight - Wednesday 11th December 2024, 1-6:30pm GMT - REGISTER HERE

• Developer Insight - Thursday 12th December 2024, 1-7:00pm GMT - REGISTER HERE

Creating scalable and flexible APIs is essential for today's web applications. When it comes to RESTful APIs in enterprise Java/Jakarta EE software development, one concept that plays a crucial role in driving adaptability, discoverability and evolvability is Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State (HATEOAS). In effect, the HATEOAS principle can help developers to significantly enhance their API designs, making them more powerful and futureproof.

Our latest guide on HATEOAS is specifically designed for developers familiar with RESTful API development using Jakarta REST (formerly known as JAX-RS). In this blog post, we’ll explore the key takeaways from the guide and show you how mastering HATEOAS can transform the way you build and evolve your APIs.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE®) Program is celebrating its 25th anniversary today! This marks a major milestone in global cybersecurity. Since 1999, the CVE Program has been critical in helping organizations identify, manage and mitigate cybersecurity vulnerabilities through worldwide collaboration. Today, with over 240,000 CVE Records and more than 400 CVE Numbering Authorities (CNAs) across 40 countries, CVE remains a vital resource for vulnerability management and a key component of cybersecurity defense.

Diagnosing issues in production environments can be a daunting task without the right tools. When problems arise, having access to comprehensive diagnostic information is critical for quick resolution. This is where Payara Server's little known diagnostic tool comes into play, offering a powerful solution for collecting important server data on demand.

There’s no shortage of bright minds in software development. Exceptional individuals in the field are solving real-world problems with innovative approaches. As the deadline to submit your entries for our next Hackathon approaches, we look at the winning solutions of our past event, focused on sustainability.

In this interview with the 2nd prize winner, Ricardo Nicolás Canul Ibarra, we talk about his experience, Privee - the application he submitted at the hackathon and how this achievement will shape his future career.  

The Jakarta EE Media and Community Challenge was established by Payara to help showcasing the innovation, creativity and collaboration within the Jakarta EE community. This technical writing challenge encouraged developers, enthusiasts and tech writers to inspire others and advance the community's knowledge on Jakarta EE. Participants from around the globe submitted their entries to share key insights and help drive the community forward.

Following the publication of the 4th place entry "Quantum Sadis", we are delighted to share with you the entry from Mads Opheim titled "Jakarta EE based serverless backend-for-frontend", which has won 3rd place in the Jakarta EE Media and Community Challenge!

When it comes to mission-critical applications for production environments, there is a clear shift in software development towards containerization, microservices or the mid-ground between monoliths and microservices: moduliths. These architectural patterns tend to offer better scalability, flexibility and efficiency in cloud native environments. As a result, application runtimes that have traditionally been well suited to monolithic paradigms, such as the GlassFish community project, can struggle to keep pace with modern development practices.  

Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) practices have become the bedrock of today’s successful DevOps practices. These however require exceptional speed, consistency and reliability in order for software professionals to deliver high-quality applications at scale. Automation offers a powerful aid to DevOps engineers involved in CI/CD activities, freeing them from repetitive and menial tasks. By leveraging automated solutions, it is therefore possible to streamline workflows, eliminate bottlenecks and speed up project progress. 

In this article, we discuss with Abdul Rahim, Release Automation Engineer at Payara, key DevOps automation tools as well as how they can support software application development and management.

In today's Nugget Friday, we're tackling a common pain point that nearly every Java developer has faced before: the tedious task of converting Java objects to JSON and back. If you are tired of writing glue code to convert your Java objects to and from JSON, then stick around for this nugget.

The Jakarta EE Media and Community Challenge was designed to be all about showcasing the innovation, creativity and collaboration within the Jakarta EE community. This challenge encouraged developers, enthusiasts and tech writers to inspire others and advance the community's knowledge on Jakarta EE. Participants from around the globe submitted their entries to help drive the community forward.

We are thrilled to share with you Jan Nilsson's entry titled "Quantum Satis", which has won 4th place in the Jakarta EE Media and Community Challenge!

We're happy to announce the latest release of the Payara Platform, bringing significant improvements and updates across our Community and Enterprise editions (download Payara Enterprise trial here). This release focuses on enhancing security, improving performance, and upgrading key components to ensure our users have access to the most up-to-date and secure application server environment.

For our next Nugget Friday, we're diving into a question that was posed in last week’s blog post: "How can I load different MicroProfile config values based on the active Maven profile?"

If you've been working with MicroProfile and Maven, you know how crucial it is to manage configurations across different environments. This week, we'll walk you through how to easily switch between configuration values by leveraging Maven profiles, ensuring your applications run seamlessly across various environments.

We're excited to announce that the 3rd edition of Payara Hackathon is now open for sign ups! Find out more !

The Payara Hackathon - Generative AI on Jakarta EE - will be running from the 2nd of October until the 6th of November and this time, we are challenging you to push the boundaries of enterprise Java development to create futureproof applications. This hackathon gives you the chance to create and showcase ground-breaking applications that harness the power of Generative AI within the Jakarta EE platform.

Whether you’re passionate about AI or a driven Java developer, this is your chance to innovate and help us showcase how Jakarta EE is a valuable solution for developing tomorrow’s apps. Winners will be spotlighted across our platforms, earn money prizes, and present their solutions to a worldwide audience.

Pushing the boundaries of innovation in application development is a must for Insurtech providers whose goal is to deliver competitive advantage for customers, positioning them at the cutting edge of customer experience, operational efficiency and resilience. Succeeding in this goal often requires a full migration to a new application server to create advanced tech capabilities.

When one of the UK's leading technology service providers, CDL, aimed to re-engineer its flagship platform, it opted to migrate to Payara Server Enterprise as the most effective solution to support its goals.

The Eclipse Foundation is launching a new Open Regulatory Compliance Working Group on 24 September 2024. Payara Services is delighted to be a Participant member and the organization is keen to ensure as many development and security teams, small to medium-sized enterprises, and corporations as possible are aware of its work. And, of course, the more organizations that join the Open Regulatory Compliance Group, the stronger our impact can be. When we work together, we can better represent open-source software-related industries while the EU develops standards under the Cyber Resilience Act 2024 and subsequent data security compliance legislation.

In this blog post, we look at the history and development of the Eclipse Foundation as well as its new focus on cybersecurity compliance regulations through the new working group since July 2024.

Ahoy crew! Welcome aboard the September edition of Payara’s Monthly Catch! As we chart our course toward the final quarter of the year, we’ve got a boatload of exciting updates, news and highlights from the Payara community and beyond. Here's our brief overview of must-read guides, in-depth tutorials, technical insights, and expert advice from September that will help you elevate your software development and deployment for enterprise Java applications!

Managing configurations in enterprise Java application can often feel like a daunting task. As applications scale, configuration values become scattered across multiple files, formats, and environments—creating complexity and increasing the risk of errors. From juggling different settings for development, testing and production environments to dealing with the frustration of restarting applications for minor config changes, these challenges slow down development and impact productivity.

But what if there was a better way to manage configurations that are flexible, dynamic and type-safe?  This Nugget Friday, we discuss MicroProfile Config—a powerful, standards-based solution designed to simplify configuration management for Java EE and Jakarta EE applications.

The Java Platform is an essential technology platform for modern applications. The Jakarta EE collection of specifications, crafted on Java SE, is arguably the most widely used (directly and indirectly) development platform for enterprise applications on the Java Platform. Over the last couple of years, Jakarta EE has started evolving much faster to meet the rapidly changing needs of enterprises. However, this evolution could be improved to better address the future needs of the industry. This is why the Eclipse Foundation, the home of the Jakarta EE Platform, has introduced the Jakarta EE Future Directions Interest Group.

Payara Platform 4 is reaching its End of Life, and the end of Extended Support is scheduled for the first quarter of 2025. 

However, we understand there are critical business reasons for which some of our customerscannot immediately transition some workloads to newer versions of the platform. To meet your legitimate business requirements, we are introducing the Lifetime Support model. This new offer replaces the Extended Support offeringfor this version and is designed to give you confidence that your business-critical applications will have enterprise level support to remain stable and secure during this transition period. 

This is your advance notice so that you can begin making plans to secure support for your existing infrastructure or to upgrade to Payara Platform 5 or 6. 

It's almost time for one of the most anticipated tech events of the year: Devoxx Belgium 2024! From October 7th to 11th, the Java developer community will gather at Kinepolis, in Antwerp, Belgium, for a week of networking, learning and exploring the latest in software development. With over 3,500 attendees expected, this conference promises to be a major highlight for developers, software engineers, tech enthusiasts as well as Payarans!

Working with multiline strings in Java has historically been a challenge, often resulting in messy code that is hard to read and maintain. Whether you're dealing with SQL queries, JSON or HTML templates, managing escape characters and manual line breaks is a cumbersome process. In today's Nugget Friday, we'll look at how Text Blocks can redefine how developers handle multiline strings, making code cleaner, more readable and easier to maintain.

Speed and responsiveness are very important in the development and use of modern RESTful APIs in Java applications, as they help ensure efficiency and scalability, especially as businesses move towards cloud-native applications. The primary means of achieving high speed, responsiveness, efficiency and scalability is through asynchronous processing. It allows applications to handle requests efficiently and perform tasks without getting stuck, making things run smoother and faster for the user while supporting scalability.

In this post, we'll look at how asynchronous processing works in Jakarta RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS or Jakarta REST) and how to implement async patterns in JAX-RS to enhance your Java web services, so you can build powerful and scalable RESTful APIs in Java.

Jakarta EE 11: What’s Next for Enterprise Java

Monday, 30th of September, 2pm BST

Register: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/jakarta-ee-11-whats-next

Ensuring Long-Term Stability with Payara Platform 4 Lifetime Support

Tuesday, 24th of September, 2pm BST

Register: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/payara-platform-4-lifetime-support

Migration Hesitation: Why Fear and Stagnation May Be Costing Your Business More Than You Think

There is no doubt that moving mission-critical applications to a new runtime environment is no small task. The fear of disruption, cost overruns and unknown risks often leads businesses to avoid necessary changes, even when the current system is far from optimal.

In the blog series ‘What’s Stopping Businesses from Application Server Migrations – Insights from Industry Players’ we explore one the reasons behind this hesitation and the real costs associated with migration fears. In the first blog post, we covered the fear of the unknown and business disruptions. In this second episode, we look at the fear of migration costs. In effect, as many business leaders reveal, the perceived financial risks often can overshadow the potential long-term benefits of moving to a different application server.

Welcome to this week’s Friday Nugget and congratulations, you've made it through the week! What better way to kick off the weekend than by talking about simplifying something that is essential to ensure that data flows smoothly between clients and servers, meeting all necessary formats, types and rules. Correct, we are talking about validation.

We're happy to announce the latest releases of Payara Platform Community 6.2024.9, Payara Platform Enterprise 6.18.0 and Payara Platform Enterprise 5.67.0. These updates bring important security enhancements, bug fixes and component upgrades to improve your Jakarta EE and MicroProfile development experience on the Payara Platform.

Jakarta EE, formerly known as Java EE (J2EE), and Spring Boot are the two de facto standards when it comes to enterprise Java applications, and the competition between these two alternatives to secure more market share has been going on for a while. Currently, many enterprise applications rely on Jakarta EE. However, most junior developers are familiar solely with Spring Boot. If you are a Spring Boot developer that needs to use or migrate to the Jakarta EE framework, we have created a guide to help you bridge your existing Spring Boot expertise with core Jakarta EE concepts.

As the international trade volume and the e-commerce sector continue to surge, the global logistics industry is experiencing unprecedented growth. To address the needs of a rapidly expanding and demanding user base, logistics companies are investing in software applications that can support faster and more transparent delivery services. For enterprise logistics apps to function seamlessly, the use of a robust and reliable application server is a must to remain competitive.

Learn what Roman Zrazhevskiy, Founder and CEO of MIRA Safety, Sergey Taver, Marketing Manager of Precision Watches have to say about application runtimes for e-commerce and logistics and why Hermes and DPD choose Payara Platform. 

Open source technologies have become invaluable tools for software developers and software engineers focusing on innovation and experimentation. In particular, open source application servers can greatly help to accelerate project development, reduce costs and foster collaborative approaches within teams and across organizations.

However, when it comes to deploying mission-critical applications in production environments, open source runtimes that are unsupported can present significant risks, exposing businesses to unnecessary vulnerabilities.

The upcoming release of Jakarta EE 11 is expected to feature a number of updated specifications. One of the key updates expected in this release is to Jakarta Concurrency, which will be advancing to version 3.1. This update is set to bring a host of new features and improvements aimed at making concurrent programming in Jakarta EE even more powerful and flexible.

Summer didn't stop our experts at Payara from producing meaningful content to help software developers and DevOps specialists power up their Jakarta EE applications. As August ends, we curated the top highlights from the month for you to check as you get back to your desk.

Focusing on Jakarta EE 11, cloud computing, microservices, application server migrations and more, this monthly catch is treasure trove of valuable content, brimming with must-read guides, in-depth tutorials, technical insights, and expert advice that will help you elevate your software development and deployment projects. Don’t miss out on these essential resources—dive in and discover the knowledge you need to succeed!

Cloud computing is becoming the norm for enterprise-level applications, offering forward-looking businesses a wealth of benefits – reduced operational costs being one of them. However, cloud infrastructure expenditure can quickly spiral out of control, if managed incorrectly. By following a few, simple guidelines, companies can maximize the advantages of the cloud, including revenue, with limited, value-adding investments.

Join us for an insightful webinar with Lenny Primak & Luqman Saeed, where we'll demystify security for your Jakarta EE applications using Apache Shiro.

Simplifying Security for Your Jakarta EE Applications with Apache Shiro

Wednesday, the the 4th of September, 4pm BST

Register: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/security-with-jakarta-and-apache-shiro

Welcome to this week’s Friday Nugget! In today’s post, we’re focusing on a new feature coming in Java 23 that’s set to make your coding life a little easier, especially if you’ve ever found yourself frustrated by the clutter of import statements: module import declarations. By leveraging such tool, you can streamline your Java code, reduce verbosity and enhance readability, making your development process more efficient.

Ensuring Business Continuity When Changing Application Runtime

In today’s digital age, the only constant is change. Yet, one area where change often induces hesitation is in the modernization and migration of application servers for software. Moving mission-critical applications to a different runtime environment can indeed be a daunting prospect, entailing significant investments of time, money and resources. However, when unsatisfied by their current solution, why is the fear of migration operations not giving way to the fear of missing out?

In this blog series 'What’s Stopping Businesses from Application Server Migrations – Insights from Industry Players', we will look at what industry experts say and debunk server migration myths.

Payara Cloud, our increasingly popular Payara as a Service (PaaS) offering, automates the cloud deployment of your Jakarta EE and MicroProfile applications, making it easy to connect to essential services that your application relies on. This post shows you how to connect your applications to the services they need. This quick tutorial applies whether those services are inside or outside your cloud environment, as long as they are reachable across the internet.

Now that we're eight months into 2024 (already!?), and in the middle of summer, it seems like a good time to catch up and update you on the Payara Roadmap for 2024 - let's see what we've done and what we are still planning to do for the rest of the year and beyond.

You can also watch the Payara Roadmap Update presented at the Virtual Payara Conference last month.

We're pleased to announce the latest releases of Payara Platform, addressing key bug fixes and delivering component upgrades for improved performance and security. Thanks to these updates, users of Payara Platform Enterprise and/or Payara Platform Community, can benefit from a more reliable and optimized runtime environment.

Robust and efficient application servers are crucial for companies relying on software applications, whether supporting e-commerce platforms, financial services portals, or internal operations. To ensure smooth operations and deliver seamless services to users, it's essential to partner with vendors who can provide a system runtime that offers maximum uptime. This reduces costs and optimizes performance, profitability, and user satisfaction. Effective service level agreements (SLAs) with these vendors play a key role in minimizing disruptions and ensuring that your applications run efficiently and reliably. 

In this blog post, we share insights from industry players on what to look for in application runtime SLAs to minimize disruptions.

Welcome to another episode of Nugget Friday, where we bring you bite-sized insights to make your development journey smoother and more efficient! This week, we're tackling a common challenge: how to dynamically configure your Payara Micro application after it’s already deployed in a production environment. 

Are you currently using GlassFish 7 and considering a migration to Payara Server? This webinar will provide a comprehensive high-level roadmap for your transition, ensuring a smooth migration process and taking full advantage of the full potential of your Jakarta EE applications running on Payara Server.

GlassFish to Payara Platform Migration Roadmap

Wednesday, the 14th of August 2pm BST

Register: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/glassfish-to-payara-migration-aug-2024 

The 11th release of Jakarta EE, the open-source successor to Java EE whose advancement is led by the Eclipse Foundation, is still undergoing development. Scheduled for release later in 2024, Jakarta EE 11 will introduce a range of enhancements and new functionalities aimed at improving Java enterprise application development. Let’s take a quick look at what to expect. 

In the latest episode of the Payara Podcast, we talk to Lenny Primak. Lenny is an experienced software architect and developer - he’s been contributing to various open source projects for many years, including Apache, Jakarta EE and Payara.

Last month, in June 2024 we held the Virtual Payara Conference, and that’s where Lenny joined us for the Open Source contributors roundtable. We had a really interesting conversation then, but had limited time to discuss various aspects of his work on open source, so we thought it’d be best to give Lenny some more time to share his journey and his experience during the Payara Podcast so here we are - we hope you will enjoy listening to this episode !

Welcome to another Nugget Friday! Today, we’re excited to share some insights into a recent development in the Java ecosystem that promises to enhance the way we process data with streams, exploring how it can make your stream processing more flexible, efficient and expressive. 

As August is about to unfold, we take some time to dive into the depths of Payara's resource base to gather for you the best pearls from July on Java, Jakarta EE, cloud computing, application development and devops. Our talented team has compiled an array of invaluable contributions designed to enhance your projects, meaning this month's roundup is packed with insightful guides, tutorials, technical insights and expert advice that you won't want to miss. 

With business running around the clock, customers and staff expect uninterrupted access to key software applications, making uptime essential to deliver optimum user experience. By implementing strategies aimed at keeping applications online, operational and responsive, companies can enhance their profitability, profile and overall competitiveness in the marketplace.

We interviewed our experts Luqman Saeed, Fabio Turizo and Patrik Duditš to help you with a few key tips on how to develop applications with high availability, consistency and reliability.

As Java developers, we’ve long grappled with the constraints of constructor logic and initialization.  In the past, if you needed to perform any operations before invoking the superclass constructor (via super()) in any class, you were often forced to rely on helper methods or extra constructors. This mostly ended up with cluttered, hard to read code as you needed to duplicate constructors or find workarounds. Let's look at how to address this in today's Nugget Friday!

Want to explore the potential of ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) architecture for your Jakarta EE workload? Our latest webinar 'Jakarta EE with ARM: Enhance Performance and Efficiency in the Cloud' is now available to watch on-demand on https://www.crowdcast.io/c/jakarta-ee-with-arm-july-2024

One of the biggest challenges when developing applications for the web is understanding how they need to be fine-tuned when releasing them into a production environment. This is no exception for Jakarta EE applications deployed on a Payara Server installation.  

In an increasingly interconnected and digital world, it is no surprise that there has been a steady rise in the number and cost of security breaches over the last few years. To maximize the robustness and resilience of your applications and prevent any vulnerability from being exploited, it's important for companies to keep everything around their software up to date.

When it comes to application servers, it means using a modern, fully supported solution or upgrading to one quickly. With Java EE-based server runtime environments being outdated legacy software and lacking support, it is essential to migrate applications relying on these to favor an alternative, such as Jakarta EE, to safeguard your applications and data.

“Which version of the Payara Platform is right for me?” We get asked this question all the time, so we wanted to provide you with a more in-depth discussion that outlines the similarities and differences between the two editions of the Payara Platform, Enterprise and Community, to help you choose the one that best fits your needs.

Welcome to another episode of Nugget Friday! Today, we'll be looking at asynchronous operations, which have always been a crucial component for creating efficient and responsive applications. 

Robust and efficient application servers are essential for companies relying on software applications, whether these support e-commerce platforms, financial services portals or internal operations.  To help ensure smooth operations, deliver seamless services to users and generate revenue, it’s important that the runtime in place can offer maximum uptime to reduce cost while optimizing performance, profitability and user satisfaction. 

In this blog post, we share insights from industry players on the impact of unexpected application server issues and downtime as well as how to reduce them.   

We're pleased to announce the latest releases of Payara Platform, bringing a range of updates across our Enterprise 5 and 6 editions as well as Community. These updates include bug fixes, performance optimizations, security enhancements and component upgrades to help you ensure your Jakarta EE and MicroProfile applications continue to run smoothly and effectively.

Payara Micro is designed from the ground-up to be nimble for lightweight, fast deployments. As such, it is ideal for microservices and cloud environments. However, there may be instances where you may want to squeeze every bit of performance out of it. In such cases, the minimalist configuration of Payara Micro comes in handy.

Thanks to this, you can cut Payara Micro's footprint and speed up startup times, improving the efficiency of your app even more. In effect, depending on your application, you may be able to slash the startup time by up to a third! Here's how.

It's Nugget Friday again, and we're excited to bring you another valuable titbit to our beloved coders! In this instalment of our Friday Nugget series, we're diving into a common yet essential task for developers, especially when handling data read from a file, network or database: converting an InputStream to a String in Java. Knowing how to do this is crucial for efficiently managing IO and data processing tasks.

When it comes to choosing an application server for your enterprise environment, it looks like there's plenty of fish in the sea. However, what each type of fish can offer can vary considerably. Hence, selecting the right one is key to improving your business's efficiency, security, scalability and overall success.

If you're currently using GlassFish, it's time to consider casting your net wider and migrating to a more powerful fish, such as Payara Platform Enterprise. Let's explore the key benefits of making this transition and why Payara could be the perfect catch for your application and enterprise needs.

Innovation is at the core of some of the most exciting software applications currently available and in development. It's important to recognize these solutions, as the stories behind them can inspire developers as well demonstrate the real-world impact of a reliable and future-oriented application server in pushing boundaries in software development. In line with this commitment, we're delighted to shine a spotlight on Payara Community member, TechnoLynx, by interviewing its CEO and Founder, Balázs Keszthelyi. In this blog post, he discusses what the organization does, its applications and how it uses Payara to power key applications.

It’s Friday and we kick off the maiden edition of Nugget Friday. So, what is it? Nugget Friday is going to be a series of short blog posts that focus on hidden nuggets in the various JDK releases since Java 9. In this maiden edition, we look at a very obscure static method on the HashMap class introduced in Java 19.

In the latest episode of the Payara Podcast, we dive deep into a very trending topic, Artificial Intelligence (AI) with a top expert who is committed to ensuring a sustainable and responsible use of this technology: Dr. Mansoor Ahmed-Rengers, CEO and Founder of OpenOriginsas well as a Scientific Researcher at the University of Cambridge. We discuss what AI is, the transformative potential of Gen AI, the challenges it presents and the importance of regulation to harness its benefits while mitigating risks.

To remain competitive in a marketplace where competition is fierce, businesses relying on software applications as part of their offering need robust, flexible and efficient application servers. These are key to maximizing the capabilities of their applications, addressing customer needs and maintaining a competitive edge.

As a Java developer, you've probably experienced the challenges of deploying Jakarta EE or MicroProfile applications to the cloud. Setting up infrastructure, configuring servers and dealing with the gamut of cloud environments can be a major deviation from your core development tasks, ultimately influencing your productivity. However, there are tools that you can leverage to simplify and streamline cloud deployments. One is Payara Cloud Maven plugin - let's look at what it offers and how to use it in this blog post.

As summer sails in, we’re navigating towards exciting new adventures. But before we start exploring what lies ahead, let's cast our nets and haul in the bounty of brilliant contributions and resources from the past month. Crafted by our talented crew to boost your Java and Jakarta EE projects, our latest roundup is brimming with pearls and gems that you won't want to miss, from sparkling tutorials to invaluable insights.

Due to high demand and many entrants' requests, we are pleased to extend the deadline for submissions for the Jakarta EE Media and Community Challenge. The contest is now open until July 25th.

We know it’s a busy period for everyone, with conferences, trade shows and other events, as well as the upcoming holiday season! We hope this extended deadline will give participants more time to get their submissions in. We’ve already had some incredible entries, and look forward to reading more!

Java's steady and predictable release cadence brings new features and improvements with each version. Java 21 (and the recently released 22) introduced major language innovations and performance optimizations. But what does this mean for the vast ecosystem of enterprise Java platforms? Let’s explore these issues in this blog post, starting with a look on the benefits of newer Java versions. 

Join us for the Virtual Payara Conference – a two-day, free online event dedicated to fortifying the security and resilience of your Java applications.

Thursday 27 June 2024, 1-5:30pm BST – Security & Cyber Resilience in the Java World - REGISTER HERE

Strategic Insights track is geared towards IT leaders, decision-makers, and strategists focusing on the broader aspects of security and cyber resilience in the Java ecosystem. This day aims to provide strategic insights and actionable guidance to help you navigate the complex cybersecurity landscape and build a robust, resilient Java environment.

Freshly rejuvenated from the annual Payara Retreat, we're pleased to announce the latest releases of Payara Platform, bringing a range of updates across our Community and Enterprise editions. These updates include bug fixes, performance optimizations, security enhancements and component upgrades to ensure your Jakarta EE and MicroProfile applications continue to run smoothly.

Start-ups are hotbeds of innovation, where speed, agility and resourcefulness are key to success. But in the world of enterprise Java applications, managing complex cloud deployment infrastructure can quickly become a bottleneck and take up considerable time from your developers. To address these issues and streamline cloud deployments, we created Payara Cloud.

Join us for the Virtual Payara Conference – a two-day, free online event dedicated to fortifying the security and resilience of your Java applications.

Wed 26 June 2024, 1-7pm BST – Developer Insights – Designing Secure and Resilient Solutions for Jakarta EE Applications – REGISTER HERE

Developer Insight track is tailored for developers and technical professionals who are involved in the design and development of Java applications. This day features an array of sessions aimed at providing practical insights and hands-on knowledge to enhance the security and resilience of your solutions. See below for the agenda details.

'Java' can be considered an umbrella term encompassing different technologies rather than a single element or solution. This webinar with Simon Ritter from Azul  & Luqman Saeed from Payara - watch here - shed a light on what different Java aspects and components,  illustrating how software developers can leverage these technologies, including runtime options, to deliver highly effective applications.

In a previous blog post, we explored the benefits of using Request Tracing in Payara Server. Payara Micro streamlines the configuration process, allowing you to tailor request tracing directly through command-line options. Let's have a look at how you can customize this tool for your Payara Micro applications.

Introduction

Security is a paramount concern for modern web applications. Protecting sensitive data and user access necessitates a standardized approach. The OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol, in conjunction with Identity Providers (IdPs) like Keycloak, and the Jakarta Security API integrated into Jakarta EE, offer a reliable solution. Together, they help streamline authentication and authorization in your Jakarta EE applications.

Introduction

In today's complex, distributed applications, pinpointing performance issues and understanding the flow of requests can be a hard task. Payara Server's Request Tracing Service provides a reliable toolset for tracing requests across various protocols and components. This blog post looks at request tracing in Payara Server, offering a quick guide to its features, configuration and best practices.

Introduction

In today's business world, competition is fierce and relentless. As a result, maximizing uptime while reducing downtime and its expenses is a top priority. In particular, users now expect applications to deliver consistent performance, regardless of unexpected challenges. Payara Server offers a high availability (HA) architecture that is designed to keep your business operational at all times. This blog post explores the components and configurations needed to create a highly available Payara Server environment, ensuring your applications remain accessible and responsive.

Deploying applications on Payara Cloud offers numerous advantages, including ease of use and scalability. However, like any platform, you might encounter some common issues. The good news is that these problems are typically easy to resolve. Below, we’ll explore common issues, compiled based on the expertise of our service team. For detailed steps and additional support, refer to our comprehensive troubleshooting guide.

Incorporating chatbots into your Jakarta EE application can offer a number of benefits to you and users, helping automate a number of tasks while maximizing support availability. If you are looking at creating and programming bots, Telegram offers a highly suitable solution, as its Bot API includes multiple features and functionalities. Let's have a closer look at the advantages and how to leverage this tool from our latest User Guide "Power Up Your Jakarta EE Applications with Telegram Chatbots"!

Avast ye, Payara Community! We are ready to chart our course for new horizons in June, but before we do, let's take a moment to look at all the treasures our old salts developed to power up your Java and Jakarta EE applications. We've collected the best pearls and gems in our latest roundup - check them out now!

We have exciting news to share: As part of our Power Up Your Jakarta EE campaign, we are launching Payara's first-ever Jakarta EE Media and Community Challenge!

We’re calling on Java experts, tech writers and content creators from around the world to showcase their talent by developing insightful content focused on Jakarta EE and the Payara Platform application server. This initiative is designed to inspire innovation and foster knowledge-sharing within the Java community. 

Choosing the right cloud platform for your Java applications can significantly improve development speed, scalability and overall costs. While popular options such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offer valuable solutions, a more niche, highly specialized provider like Payara can deliver effective platforms that bring unique Java-centric advantages: Payara Cloud. Let's take a look at Payara Cloud and how it compares to other common alternatives.

Today May 23rd marks the 29th birthday of the Java Platform. First debuting in in 1995, the platform has grown to become one of the most used technologies in the world. On this 29th occasion of its birthday, I got an AI chatbot to compose an ode for the Java Platform. So dear Java, here's an ode to you on your birthday from myself and everyone at Payara!

Join us for the Virtual Payara Conference – a two-day, free online event dedicated to fortifying the security and resilience of your Java applications.

This conference is designed for developers, IT professionals, and decision-makers who are keen to enhance their knowledge and skills in creating secure Java environments. The event is divided into two focused days, each packed with insightful sessions from industry experts, including EU Cyber Resilience Act Specialists, Java Leaders, Industry Analysts & more.

Wed 26 June 2024, 1-6pm BST – Developer Insights – Designing Secure and Resilient Solutions for Jakarta EE Applications – REGISTER HERE

Thurs 27 June 2024, 1-6pm BST – Strategic Insights: Security & Cyber Resilience in the Java World – REGISTER HERE

Are you planning to work with Payara Cloud and look forward to harness its power but don't know where to start? Our platform is extremely intuitive, but to make sure you can get the most out of it, we compiled a Quick Start Guide, written with you in mind. It is your roadmap to navigating this cutting-edge platform and it walks you through the essentials of getting started with Payara Cloud to simplify your journey from signup to deployment.

Payara Server offers integrated tools that streamline your development experience when working with Jakarta CDI (Contexts and Dependency Injection) in your applications. In this post, we'll take a look at the CDI Development Mode available in Payara Server and the CDI Probe it offers.

With nearly every activity currently relying on applications, companies are continuously seeking to rapidly innovate, advance and scale their solutions. As these applications grow considerably, traditional on-premises infrastructure may not always be able to meet key operational requirements. In such instances, Cloud-native solutions are ideal, as they can offer scalability, agility and cost-effectiveness.

Let's dig deeper into how Payara Cloud can help you futureproof your Jakarta EE applications and, in turn, enhance your profitability and competitiveness in a fat-moving and demanding marketplace. 

We're happy to announce the May 2024 release of Payara Platform! These updates bring a smoother user experience, security fixes, and essential component upgrades to keep your Jakarta EE applications running at their best.

REST, or Representational State Transfer, is the web standard for building APIs and applications. It offers a lightweight architecture for exchanging data between applications over the web. Jakarta REST (formerly JAX-RS) is the standard API for building RESTful web services on the Jakarta EE Platform. 

This blog post looks at caching within Jakarta REST. We'll explore how to use the built-in features and functionalities to enhance the performance and user experience of your RESTful APIs through resource caching. By using these techniques, you can significantly reduce server load, improve responsiveness, and enhance the overall efficiency of your web resources.

Maven is arguably the most used build automation tool in the Java ecosystem. With that great power and popularity, comes great...configuration options! One such option that can leave you scratching your head is dependency scopes. This blog post takes a quick look at maven scopes, what they are and when to choose which scope.

Introduction

Lately, microservices have become extremely popular in software design. They offer the ability to scale, deploy updates independently and use different technologies. However, it's easy to forget how complex microservices can be to manage. Inspired in part by the introduction of Spring Modulith, a top-level Spring project aimed at helping developers create evolvable applications, this blog post takes a fresh look at the concept of modularity.