Maximize Enterprise Java with Azure Integration Hub

Optimize Enterprise Java with Azure Integration Hub

Microservice architectures are more common and developers are increasingly building applications on cloud platforms with containers and managed services.

It is difficult to run Java applications on the cloud at an enterprise scale because of the complexity of Javas ecosystem. Customers are asking us for help in modernizing their Java applications and running them on Azure, an enterprise-grade platform.

To support a wide variety of customer workloads, we have made significant investments in Java, including the development of Azure development company SpringCloud with VMware as a managed destination to Spring Boot applications, the acquisition of jClarity, and the creation of our Microsoft Java Engineering Group.

OpenJDK is now supported by Microsoft. It offers a new Java runtime option for Azure, with the possibility of Azure-tuned optimizations. Through collaborations with Red Hat and Oracle, we now support Java EE and Jakarta EE server applications.

We also have new offers for Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, (EAP), and IBM WebSphere in Azure Virtual Machines.

Microsoft also uses Java extensively. Java is a key component of our companys success. It powers some of our most important products, such as LinkedIn, SQL Server Azure, Minecraft, Yammer, and SQL Server.

For our internal systems, we have hundreds of thousands Java virtual machines (JVMs), which are used for production. LinkedIn alone has thousands upon thousands of Java microservices. Microsoft has the user experience of managing enterprise Java workloads both internally and externally to assist our customers in transforming their business growth.

"Our move to the cloud is described by me as this: Imagine that you were pulling into a pit stop at a racetrack and instead of changing your tires, you had the engine changed out.

And in making the switch to Microsoft Azure, we changed out that engine--literally--overnight."--Doug Wilson, Senior Director of Software Engineering, Kroger.

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Use The Tools And Frameworks That You Love To Build

Azure integrates with DevOps tools that are popular in Java shops. This includes integrated development environments (IDEs), continuous integration and continuous delivery, CI/CD, and source code management.

The Azure Toolkits are available for IntelliJ or Eclipse. This allows you to create, develop and configure Java apps that can be deployed to Azure. It is accessible from any IDE, such as IntelliJ Eclipse, Visual Studio Code, or Eclipse.

You can use plugins for Maven or Gradle to build and interact natively with Azure services. Additionally, you can automate workflows and deploy with Terraform, Jenkins, and GitHub Actions.


Azure Offers A Variety Of Java Developer Tools

Microsoft is committed to Java developers and supports projects that make them more productive. Weve contributed directly to OpenJDK--implementing ports from Windows and macOS on ARM, contributing enhancements to speed up Java builds on Windows, and helping to accelerate the development of the Shenandoah garbage collector.

We are announcing the general availability of OpenJDKs Microsoft Build at Microsoft Build. This is a free, open-source, long-term support (LTS), distribution of OpenJDK. It can be deployed anywhere and distributed without any cost.

Its no surprise that GitHub hosts over 3.6 million Java repositories. We have been working hard to improve support for Java developers.

This includes offering free cloud computing cycles to support CI/CD, code scanning capabilities in GitHub repos. These are helping to power many of the most important Java projects such as Adoptium and Eclipse Foundation, Red Hat, and VMware.


Fully-Managed Services Make It Easier To Ship Faster

Developers and organizations want to concentrate on their apps, not managing or configuring infrastructure. Azure Kubernetes Service (ARO) and Azure Red Hat OpenShift are the best-of-breed Kubernetes platforms for containerized applications.

Azure offers Java SE, Tomcat and Red Hat JBoss EAP (in Preview) on Azure App Service.

Spring on Azure Spring Cloud also has the best managed Java hosting apps. Azure Functions can be used to automate and scale your event-driven architectures.

Managed services are easier to use, more productive, and less expensive overall.


Azure Supports Java Servers And Frameworks Across A Variety Of Managed Compute Destinations

Azure Spring Cloud, a fully managed service that supports Spring Boot apps, allows you to focus on building and maintaining the apps that will run your business objectives.

Azure Spring Cloud will automatically wire your apps using the Spring service runtime. Simply deploy JARs and code. You can quickly improve application performance and fix errors once the deployment is complete.

It is fully integrated into Azures ecosystem and enterprise-ready.

Azure App Service allows you to quickly create, deploy, scale, and scale Java web applications and APIs according to your specifications.

You can deploy EAR and WAR files on Tomcat (in preview), Red Hat JBoss EAP, or your IDE using Maven plugins. Azure development Services comes with CI/CD integration, zero-downtime deployments and deployment slots.

Azure App Service diagnostics allow you to optimize performance and perform intelligent troubleshooting.

Secure enterprise application hosting can be achieved with a range of networking features or the single-tenant App Services Environment.

To migrate Tomcat web applications to Azure App Service, use the App Service Migration Assistant.


Easy Extension Of Java Applications

Support services are required for applications such as databases, integration, security and monitoring. Azure Database for PostgreSQL and Azure Database for MySQL are just a few of the managed database options available.

Customers can scale their databases virtually unlimitedly with Azure, the only cloud that offers hyperscale PostgreSQL. Integrate your applications using integration services such as Azure Service Bus, Java Message Service (JMS), support and API management.

Event Hub and Event Grid are available for data ingestion. Azure Monitor Application Insights provides native monitoring functionality that is fully managed for Java workloads on Azure.

This includes application performance monitoring (APM) and application performance monitoring. Azure Spring Cloud and Java On Azure reference architectures with common Azure platform services, security and integration

Our enterprise customers are our priority. We work closely with them to make sure we meet their requirements in all areas, including security, deployment, scaling, and cost.

There are key themes such as the enforcement of a Zero Trust security model and end-to-end monitoring, observability and automation. Many customers have thousands upon thousands of Java applications on-premises. They need to validate the architectures they use for migrating these applications to the cloud.

They will need to be able to show how they can map their on-premises systems to industry-defined security controls or benchmarks in many customer environments.

The recently released reference architecture of Azure Spring Cloud Java on Azure and Java on Azure allows you to easily follow best practices for deploying Java apps in the cloud. It also includes a variety of supporting services. You can easily expand functionality by starting with a solid foundation.

"The availability and ease of use of Azure Spring Cloud reference architecture have reduced our internal cycles for researching architecture options and Spring Cloud feature set options.

This allowed us to quickly determine how we would like to implement and scale globally ."--Devon Yost Enterprise Architect, Digital Realty Trust


Profit From Our Strong Partnership Ecosystem

Microsofts strong partner network offers best-in-class solutions for bringing your Java workloads to Azure. This will allow you to extend the functionality and performance of your applications.

You can take advantage of a growing number of Java-focused solutions, including managed hosting that offers joint development and support for Azure Marketplace images for popular Linux distributions.

Microsofts strong partner network offers many options for Java application development and maintenance. Customers have significant investments in mission-critical Java apps running on-premises.

They need fully supported environments to run those apps in the cloud. We are announcing Azure Marketplace options for Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and IBM WebSphere. Both run on Azure VMs.

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Red Hat JBoss JBoss EAP for Azure VMs offers flexible licensing options, including bringing your own subscription or pay as you go RHEL.

These solutions include Quickstarts and solution templates that allow you to set up base images, provision computing resources and configure options.

Customers now have the option to choose from Red Hat JBoss EAP or IBM WebSphere to deploy Java enterprise applications servers on Azure VMs.

Redis is used by many Java developers to cache data, Elastic for log analysis, observabilities, and Kafka for event streaming.

Azure has unique managed services for these services. Redis Enterprise and Redis Enterprise Flash are available on Azure-managed infrastructure. Elastic on Azure Marketplace is integrated with Azure Marketplace for ELK-based monitoring.

Confluent Cloud integrates with Azure portal and CLI. With managed infrastructure and support, you can continue using your favorite Azure services.

Red Hat and Microsoft both want to make it easier for organizations to move traditional Java applications to cloud computing.

Red Hat JBoss EAP for Azure provides customers with a fully configured, supported solution that makes it easier to achieve the benefits of the cloud-based architecture. We look forward to building on our long-standing relationship and expanding support for our joint customers. "--Rich Sharples Senior Director of Product Management, Application Services, Red Hat.

Also Read: How to Become a Full Stack Java Developer - A Learning Path to become successful Full Stack Java Developer


Java On Azure: Get started

Customers and developers desire a seamless extensive experience when running Java apps in the cloud. This doesnt mean they have to alter their workflows or processes.

Azures open platform offers broad integration for developers, fully managed database and platform services, as well as a wide range of partner offerings. Customers have done amazing things with Java on Azure. We will continue to invest and expand our Java offerings.

You are invited to read more and start building and running Java applications on Azure. With extensive documentation and self-paced training, we are available to assist you at all stages.

We also offer support for migrations and modernizations from Azures engineering dedicated teams. We would love to see your work.


Azure Spring Cloud: Develop Java Enterprise Code

Azure Spring Cloud: Develop Java Enterprise Code

Microsoft Pivotal Brings Its Popular Java Framework

Pivotal JVM to Azure for deployment without needing to rewrite them and still taking advantage of Azure cost and scalability benefits.

Azure Spring Cloud Service provides another viable option, built upon Pivotals Spring Boot Java Framework and providing access to Azure Services through Java Code with scaling provided via Azure Kubernetes Service - without needing extensive configuration work upfront. A public preview should become available before the end of 2019.

Spring Boot, an extension of Spring framework, is a runtime environment for Java enterprise applications. Write and deploy code; Spring Boot will manage libraries and services that depend upon them automatically for smooth running applications.

Per their documentation, their aim is for code "just run."


Java Opinionated On Azure

Spring Boots opinionated approach to dependency management makes it ideal for running within managed cloud services such as Azure.

Maintaining services becomes much simpler without libraries to manage; changes can be generated and deployed into Continuous Delivery pipelines using Pivotal Spring Boot Build Services delivery of containers with ready code ready for Azure Kubernetes Service deployment, using Azure CLI scale-and-run capabilities afterward.

Pivotal and Heroku have developed tools for automating Kubernetes container creation as part of the Build Service, including Cloud Native Buildpacks for container packaging and creation; Cloud Native Buildpacks facilitates application images that run within Azure Spring Boot, while Kpack automated deployment using Controllers or Command-Line.

If you use K Pak with Spring Boot and push an update into the source tree, Kpack will detect this and build and deploy an updated Buildpack and deploy to your app.

Not just limited to Spring Boot usage - Cloud Foundry apps have taken to using it too, and other Kubernetes projects have adopted its use; Azure developers also use automation by automating code work, including container creation and updating before being ready for deployment.


Quick Azure Integration With Spring Boot Starters

Starters in Spring Boot are one of the critical components to quick Azure integration, enabling direct API access through code with automatic support of essential libraries.

Azure Spring Cloud includes Starters dedicated specifically for various Azure services like its databases (Azure DB and Cosmos DB), Active Directory, and Event Hubs for streaming data storage as well as monitoring tools that facilitate seamless Spring Boot integration into Azure services and allow complete stack performance monitoring of applications developed on Spring Boot platforms.

Starters import modules during deployment time, adding properties to Spring Boots configuration files. Your Azure resources dont need to reside within the same Resource Group with your Spring Boot Application since its code can be configured separately with details about your account and any credentials files used as authentication keys.

Once Azure configuration has been completed, you can add code directly into the Spring Boot app without worrying about writing specific Azure-related code - Spring Boot will manage connections without your intervention.

Make your app portable by decoupling Azure from its code. Your application can run wherever theres a Spring Boot installation; databases, authentication services, or storage blobs in Azure behave the same as they would on servers, so developers dont need to become expert Azure experts themselves but continue with what they know - Java.

Spring Boot doesnt just exist as a managed service - Azure allows you to run your own Spring Boot instance using virtual servers as server hosts, putting you in charge of keeping both application and framework updated; Microsoft and Pivotal updates, however, take care of delivering updates automatically behind-the-scenes to limit service disruptions.


Multi-cloud Java: A New Path Forward

Azure Spring Boot offers an effective bridge between IT on-premises and public clouds by employing familiar tools and makes hybrid cloud and multi-cloud support possible if your code does not depend on Azure; similar code could run both locally as well as being burst out for spikes in traffic onto Azure when necessary.

You could host applications with AWS and Azure, respectively, while using global DNS services to direct users directly to an appropriate endpoint, minimizing latency or service disruptions and preventing service disruptions when running simultaneously between AWS/Azure.

Pivotal offers the Spring Boot Extension Pack for Visual Studio Code to give developers all the features required for building Spring Boot applications quickly and efficiently.

Tools to develop Spring Java code and its configuration files, debugger tools, build pipeline, and deployment manifest support are included. Finally, one installer configures and sets up everything, so you dont have to spend your valuable development team time configuring tools independently.

When working in any public cloud environment, simplicity is best. Scaling complex applications or knowing their costs is difficult - Azure Spring Cloud reduces middleware dependency while connecting directly with Azure Services, providing you with an accessible framework to deploy Java apps on Azure without altering how you test and develop them.


Java Enterprise Applications

Enterprise applications typically exhibit superior performance, security, and scalability characteristics. Such applications must accommodate large amounts of users while remaining reliable; Javas longstanding history of cross-platform compatibility makes it the ideal platform to develop such apps for this reason alone.

Heres why:

  1. Java applications are well known to "write once and run anywhere." You can create your application in one environment before running it without modifications on all systems supporting Java - an indispensable advantage in business operations with diverse IT environments.
  2. Java Is Boasted of an Extensive Ecosystem: Java benefits from an expansive ecosystem of frameworks, libraries, and tools that help speed the development process. At the same time, it simplifies the maintenance of complex enterprise apps ranging from Spring Framework and Hibernate through Apache Kafka.
  3. Java Security: With its robust security model that includes features such as bytecode validation and sandboxing and comprehensive libraries dedicated to security features, Java is an ideal platform for applications requiring additional protection against security-sensitive code.
  4. Scalability Java can efficiently utilize system resources and scale applications horizontally and vertically for growing business continuity. At the same time, adaptability enables your application to adapt to business requirements expansion.

Also Read: Steps to Develop Custom Software with a Right Company


Azure Is A Top Cloud Platform For Java Applications

Hire Microsoft Azure developer which is cloud fast becoming one of the leading choices to host enterprise Java workloads, offering compelling reasons for companies considering Azure to host Java workloads.

Here are just a few compelling benefits you should take note of before choosing it as your Java hosting provider:

  1. Multiple Java Runtime Supported: Azure provides multiple Java runtime options, such as OpenJDK, Oracle JDK, and their managed Java offering, to meet varying business goals requirements. Choose which runtime best meets your requirements from their selection list of OpenJDK, Oracle JDK, or Azure Managed Java for maximum efficiency in meeting them.
  2. Azure Spring Cloud Azure: Spring Cloud, developed jointly by VMware and Azure, makes life simpler for Spring Boot developers when deploying, managing, and operating applications using Spring Boot technology. This service features application scaling capabilities as well as monitoring/logging.
  3. DevOps and Integration Tools: Azure offers several DevOps and integration tools that assist developers with monitoring and managing Java apps - Azure DevOps and Application Insights are among them.
  4. Managed Kubernetes Service: Containerize Java applications easily using Docker or Kubernetes technologies, and Azure Kubernetes Service provides an orchestrated platform to make scaling and deploying microservices straightforward.
  5. Azure Functions: Azure Functions is a serverless Java app that enables developers to write code that responds automatically when certain events happen, such as HTTP Requests, Queue messages, or Timer Triggers, without needing to manage infrastructure or resource pools.
  6. Global Reach: Azure data centers are located worldwide to offer low latency for users regardless of physical location, making this global presence essential for enterprises with large user bases.

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Conclusion Of Article

Business owners require an infrastructure capable of accommodating flexible, scalable, and robust Java apps that will keep pace in todays increasingly competitive business apps world.

Azure stands out among available cloud platforms by offering comprehensive services with extensive Java support - making it an appealing option for companies upgrading their IT infrastructure or looking for ways to optimize enterprise workloads on its platform - offering everything necessary for enterprise Java workload optimization - the perfect home for enterprise apps on Azure that will help business transformation prosper and thrive during cloud infrastructure era transition.


References

  1. 🔗 Google scholar
  2. 🔗 Wikipedia
  3. 🔗 NyTimes