Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the greatest of them all: Python or Java?
The technology industry has always been sensitive to hype. These days the obsession with artificial intelligence (AI) is almost overwhelming and as someone who has been working with Java for over 25 years, I have to admit that there is a certain amount of jealousy. It’s no surprise that as AI and machine learning continue to evolve, computer science graduates are increasingly drawn to the Python programming language because it plays such an integral role in this world.
That said, I think it would be a mistake to put all your eggs in the AI basket. If you’re a graduate or already working in the IT industry, consulting your Mirror, Mirror on the Wall and pondering whether your future lies with Python or Java, I want to convince you that Java is indeed the best of them all.
You can say I’m biased, but there are huge opportunities for programmers looking to set their sights on Java in 2024. The noise around AI may attract attention, but its appeal will rise and fall as the discipline matures. If you want more security in a career in IT, Java is the established and THE mature technology in the enterprise.
Reasons why Java skills are in high demand
In the world of enterprise technology, there is a commercial reality that is underlined by Hackerrank’s early 2023 analysis of the most in-demand skills for employers. Java clearly came out on top in that ranking. Definitely an exciting time to be a Java developer.
Why do I believe this? There are many good reasons why Java will continue to lead the demand for IT skills in 2024, but let me narrow it down to the three most prominent:
1. Java is everywhere
We conducted our annual State of Java survey, which found that Java is used in most enterprise applications and IT infrastructure environments. This universality means there are significant opportunities for those with Java skills. However, one major problem we discovered is the complexity of the version. Our analysis shows that many companies are using more than one version of Java, from JDK 6 and 7 to JDK 8, 11 and 17. In an enterprise environment, downtime has real financial consequences, so knowing there are so many versions of Java in this set – UPS creates complexity and more worrying security issues.
With the Log4j vulnerability we saw how much potential damage can be caused if the code is not up to date. Recent research from Veracode shows that many companies still haven’t fully updated their Java code base to protect against future breaches. The bottom line is that companies will need people with Java skills to ensure that applications remain stable and secure. There will be a constant demand for commercial support to provide the essential solutions, security patches and expertise to support these teams.
At a time when organizations are striving to transform their corporate IT environments, it is critical that the underlying Java applications and infrastructure are optimized. This creates opportunities for programmers because, working with our customers, we have also found that optimizing Java environments has had a significant positive knock-on effect on the use of cloud computing.
Historically, we’ve seen customers pay for more public cloud capacity than they use, but if they optimize their Java-based applications and infrastructure they can significantly improve throughput, which in turn reduces the number of nodes they need in the cloud . We’ve also seen examples where organizations have had instances on standby because they were concerned about Java warm-up times, which also added unnecessary costs.
A good Java coder will be seen as a huge asset to an organization if they can realize cost savings on public cloud spend and improve IT performance.
2. Java is alive and well
Although Oracle owns the trademark, there is an incredibly robust open source community, which underlines the health of the technology. This community contributes to innovations and builds Java-based frameworks, libraries and tools, ensuring their continued relevance in the enterprise. More than 9 million developers use Java to create applications for everything from smart cards to corporate servers and the cloud.
Java supports more than 4,500 branded products. In addition, there is an established standards structure that gives companies confidence that the technology will be developed in a consistent, reliable manner. You only have to look at the ChatGPT dependency concerns raised during the recent uncertainty surrounding the OpenAI leadership team to understand why business users can’t become dependent on a technology that is unstable or dominated by one player .
That Java has so many contributors and established ways of working means that people with Java skills can also be confident that there will be opportunities for them well into the future.
3. Java is at a turning point
In early 2023, Oracle announced that it would change its pricing policy for Java, which has upset many in the community. Based on our conversations with customers, we’re seeing more and more consideration of alternative non-Oracle Java distributions. Clearly, this will increase demand for Java skills, but more importantly, this disruption will lead to further innovation as other vendors look to provide solutions that not only match, but enhance what Oracle already offers, such as delivering more distributed architectures; faster start-up/warm-up times; better performing JVMs; and telemetry to check for vulnerabilities in the underlying Java code.
These three factors secure the future for Java as we will see new developments and applications of the technology that will maintain its vibrancy. This will in turn create opportunities for individuals to make a name for themselves by contributing to future developments in the community, suggesting that Java will be around long after all the hype surrounding other technologies has died down.
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