At one time, IBM was probably the dominant force in the enterprise segment of the Java community. Nevertheless, at Oracle Code One 2019, everything indicated that a serious shift awaits us in the confrontation between Microsoft and IBM.
IBM has always invested heavily in Java development, while Microsoft was not worried about it. But it looks like IBM is about to leave the Java table, and Microsoft is preparing to take this place.
Microsoft vs IBM: role reversal
IBM created the Eclipse environment. IBM "hooked" Fortune 500 clients into WebSphere, which led to the widespread adoption of server-side Java. And when Oracle bought Sun Microsystems 10 years ago, IBM made a big bet on Sun technology. If Oracle had not made an interesting proposal, IBM would probably have mastered the Java language.
But IBM’s interest declined over time, and the company neglected its WebSphere users, providing them with weird updates for Web Content Management (WCM) tools, server and portal management tools. Even today, the WCM editor does not support multiple browser tabs. The web interface of the server admin panel falls apart when you click the back button, and the portal configuration tool is very outdated. No one in the industry was surprised when IBM sold the WebSphere business to HCL Industries earlier this year.
It was felt by users that IBM had long abandoned WebSphere and server-side Java. Instead, Big Blue focuses on AI, cloud technology, and their ambiguous range of tools under the Watson brand . Of course, IBM did not represent as much representation at Oracle Code One 2019 as it did when the conference was called JavaOne, and this contrasts sharply against Microsoft.
Microsoft vs IBM: while some are on their way to Java developers, others are abandoning them
The Microsoft .NET platform has always been a direct competitor to Java EE, and any tool under the flag of Bill Gates was expected to be criticized by the Java community - no matter how reasonable it was. Despite a reputation in the minds of Java developers, over the past 18 months Microsoft has done everything possible to please the community.
Microsoft sponsored AdoptOpenJDK in June 2018. More recently, Microsoft bought jClarity , and Java champions Martijn Verburg and Ben Evans, respectively, joined Microsoft. And despite its own popular and powerful version control system, Team Foundation Server, Microsoft spent $ 7.5 billion on GitHub , a distributed version control system that hosts many Apache projects and other open source Java projects.
Microsoft servers have never been oriented towards Java EE applications. But cloud-native Java applications running in Docker can be easily deployed to Microsoft Azure. Containerization has opened for Microsoft a previously inaccessible market for enterprise Java applications.
Oracle Code One 2019 will be remembered as a turning point in the confrontation between Microsoft and IBM. This year, Microsoft has taken seriously a breakthrough into the Java community, turning from an outsider into an important player.
Understanding this came when I saw Kirk Pepperdine perform on Code One, a Java champion who was always independent, and realized that he was now Microsoft's chief engineer. Reza Rahman, a former Java EE evangelist at Oracle, also represented Microsoft in the BoF session (“Birds of a Feather”).
It is very clear that Microsoft made a serious bet on the corporate segment of the Java market, while IBM plunged into other directions.
What do you think prompted Microsoft to enter corporate Java?