Every year they predict a quick death to Java, but this doesn’t happen and it won’t happen very soon. Java in 2021 is overgrown with new features and was released twice right on schedule, despite the global turmoil. This year the Java community deals with the release of the JDK 17 LTS version.
The previous year has been very distressing for businesses and employees in general. Though, software development didn’t get so much affected and is still thriving. While tech expansion is continuing, Java development is also going under significant transformation, says Bogdan Galusca, Senior Software Engineer at EPAM Romania.
Top Java Trends you should know about
Java Releases
Even before the release of Java SE 17, Java 8 was the most popular version among developers. Many tech experts devoted themselves to Java 8 due to the available public updates for private and commercial use. The long-term support version was also a critical factor, although there were no more commercial and public use updates as of December 2020.
Today, many serious production applications are moving to Java 11.
Oracle announced the availability of Java 17, the latest version of the world’s number one programming language and development platform. Java 17 delivers thousands of performances, stability and security updates, as well as 14 JEPs (JDK Enhancement Proposals) that further improve the Java language and platform to help developers be more productive.
Considering these improvements, I’m expecting that production application to move to Java 17 in the near future. Here is a list of what is new in Java 17.
Spring
Spring is one of the most widely used Java frameworks. There have been some major releases for Spring, Spring Security and Spring Boot in recent years. Today, it seems like everyone is focused on leveraging the cloud for development.
It’s also an excellent solution when building an organization’s applications in Java. It can include cloud applications, microservices, complex data processing systems, or responsive, safe and fast web applications. Also, you should expect Spring’s popularity to be even stronger throughout 2021 and in the next years because it is lightweight and easy to deploy.
If you use Spring, probably it’s the best time to learn Spring 5.0 (the latest version released).
Serverless Architecture
The shift to serverless architecture is another trend that is expected to become more prevalent in 2021.
Hosting a software application on the internet usually involves managing some kind of server infrastructure. Typically, this means a virtual or physical server that needs to be managed, as well as the operating system and other web server hosting processes required for your application to run. Using a virtual server from a cloud provider such as Amazon or Microsoft or GCP does mean the elimination of the physical hardware concerns, but still requires some level of management of the operating system and the web server software processes.
With a serverless architecture, you focus purely on the individual functions in your application code.
At EPAM we are working with all cloud providers in almost all our projects and have access to the latest technologies, tools, and training resources and provide access to a rich library of learning & development resources. This helps us improve our technical capabilities, security, mobility and gives us a competitive advantage.
Big Data
With the significant growth in information and computing power, the last years have shown, more and more organisations have turned their attention to big data calculations.
Nowadays the amount of data produced every day shows exponential growth. Moreover, analyzing such a vast amount of data will only continue to increase over the period as well. Batch data processing is a realistic way of analyzing such vast data, and this is mostly done using open-source tools like Hadoop and Spark.
Java is still one of the most preferred languages in Big Data projects due to various open-source tools such as Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark, Apache Mahout, Java JFreechart, Deeplearning4j, Apache Storm.
Artificial Intelligence
Java can be called as one of the best languages for AI projects. Java for Artificial Intelligence (AI) programming is mostly used to create machine learning (ML) solutions, search algorithms, genetic programming, neural networks and multi-robot systems.
Java’s must-have features for AI projects are its object-orientedness and scalability. Virtual machine technology makes Java portable, transparent and maintainable. It will enable you to build a single app version that can run on all Java-supported platforms and thus adding value to your business.
Key Java Features appropriate for developing AI Applications:
Cross-platform
Easy to learn and use
Easy-to-code Algorithms
Built-in garbage collector
Swing and Standard Widget Toolkit
Simplified work with large-scale projects
Better user interaction
Easy to debug
Reliable community
Multiple free tutorials
Scalable
Reactive Systems
Over the last few decades, the technology landscape has seen several disruptions that have led to a complete transformation in the way we see value in technology. The computing world before the Internet could never have imagined the ways and means in which it will change our current day. With the reach of the Internet to the masses and the ever-evolving experience it promises, application architects need to be on their toes to meet their demands.
Fundamentally, this means that we can never design an application in the way we used to earlier. A highly responsive application is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Reactive systems are an architectural style that allows multiple individual applications to blend into one unit, reacting to their environment, while staying aware of each other.
The first formalization of this term came about with the creation of the ” Reactive Manifesto ” in 2013 by Jonas Boner who, by bringing together some of the brightest minds in the distributed systems industry, wanted to clarify the confusion around reactivity ( which has become a “buzz-word”) and build a solid foundation for a viable development style. Thus “Reactive Manifesto” describes a set of principles necessary to build systems capable of responding to queries very quickly and this even in case of failure or overload.
With all the new developments happening in Java, it’s safe to say that this programming language is going to remain an important player in the tech world – at least in 2021 – 2022.
Join us on 10th of November at GoTech World, on the Java Stage to discuss the principles of high-level documentation with Peter Verhas, Senior Software Engineer and Software Architect at EPAM SYSTEMS and get to know some insightful ideas from his presentation “Don’t document your code, code your document”.
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