The University of Sydney switches from Oracle Java to Azul Platform Core

Australian university chooses independent Java provider for greater cost efficiency and ease of doing business.

The University of Sydney has selected Azul as the institution’s sole Java provider, and will leverage Azul’s more than 20-year history of Java expertise for substantial cost savings, much greater predictability and ease of doing business.

Founded in 1850 and serving 74,000 students with 8,100 staff, The University of Sydney is one of the most prestigious universities in Australia. Operating one of the world’s top research universities requires a vast IT footprint comprised of many technologies, including thousands of desktops running Java-based applications and frameworks.

The university’s Information and Communications Technology Vendor Management Office was tasked with sourcing, implementing and overseeing a wide array of software and hardware vendors. After examining the university’s Java estate, the team decided to explore their options for a secure, supported Java runtime that didn’t carry the risk of time-consuming audits.

“As with most universities, we are always looking for efficiency from our IT vendor relationships, not just by lowering costs, but also by eliminating uncertainty and distractions,” said Emiliano Fisanotti, Vendor Management Specialist and University Software Licensing Community Executive Member, The University of Sydney.

“Supporting so many departments and managing a wide range of vendor relationships means I can’t afford to worry about unexpected headaches such as price increases and audits. With Azul we found a trusted partner who was easy to work with and provided a secure, drop-in replacement for Oracle Java.”

This announcement takes place amid major changes to Oracle Java pricing and a rapid increase in the adoption of OpenJDK-based Java runtimes.

By some estimates, usage of Oracle Java has fallen from roughly 75% in 2020 to 34% in 2022. Azul is the second largest Java vendor behind Oracle, supports more versions of Java than any other vendor (including Oracle itself) and provides a secure, compatible, and compliant Java runtime for typically 70% less cost than Oracle.

Scott Sellers, CEO and co-founder, Azul, said: “Azul is ideal for higher education institutions like The University of Sydney because we are easy on their budget and easy to deploy while providing best-in-class security and support.”