What are the implications for enterprise Java solutions?

The combination of Azul and Payara addresses some of the most pressing challenges enterprises face today: accelerating application modernization, achieving cloud-native agility, and reducing dependencies on proprietary platforms.

The integrated offering provides customers with a unified, enterprise-grade Java platform based on open-source that can support an organization’s entire Java fleet – from business-critical applications to IoT, microservices and modern Java frameworks.

Complementary Products and Expertise

This acquisition marks a pivotal moment in enterprise Java innovation and builds on nearly eight years of collaboration between Azul and Payara, which began with the introduction of Azul Platform Core embedded into Payara Server Enterprise in 2018.

Payara adds deep engineering expertise and proven go-to-market experience in the Jakarta EE (Java EE) space, strengthening Azul’s Java platform with complementary products and enhanced market reach.

With this acquisition, Azul now provides commercially supported, open-source solutions across the Java application stack, delivering faster, more efficient, secure and cost-effective Java deployments compared to proprietary alternatives such as Oracle.

In addition to their complementary technologies, both companies share a deep history working with and participating in open-source communities, including the OpenJDK and Eclipse Jakarta EE Platform projects.

Driving Innovation and Value for Enterprise Java Customers

“This strategic acquisition is further testament to Azul’s commitment to support the needs of our global enterprise customer base,” said Scott Sellers, co-founder and CEO of Azul. “Payara delivers proven products that are naturally synergistic with our existing offerings and brings additional deep technical expertise to the world’s largest independent Java engineering team. Together, we will accelerate growth and innovation, expand our roadmap and deliver even greater value to our customers.”

“This is a major new chapter for Payara,” said Steve Millidge, founder and CEO at Payara. “After a strong and long-standing partnership with Azul, combining forces is the natural next step and positions us for accelerated growth. Together, we will strengthen mission-critical solutions for enterprise Java customers and deliver greater performance, security and innovation across the Java ecosystem.”

Adding Payara’s solutions to Azul’s Java portfolio expands its offerings in the application server segment and adds an estimated $26 billion total addressable market (TAM) projected to grow at a CAGR of 11–14%.

This announcement follows Azul’s recently completed majority investment from Thoma Bravo, a leading software investment firm, alongside renewed minority investments from the company’s existing private equity sponsors, Vitruvian Partners and Lead Edge Capital.

“The acquisition of Payara accelerates Azul’s growth and broadens the company’s reach across the global enterprise Java market,” said Adam Solomon, a partner at Thoma Bravo. “Azul’s category-defining innovations create a significant opportunity for global enterprises to leverage innovative and cost-effective open-source solutions to modernize their Java application fleets and reduce dependencies on proprietary platforms.”

Goodwin Procter LLP served as legal advisor and debt financing for the transaction was provided by funds affiliated with Ares Management LLC.

For the first time, over 10,000 Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) from a single enterprise are now collaborating in real time, sharing performance optimisations to dramatically improve application speed, scaling, and efficiency.

A leading global company has deployed hundreds of applications and microservices using Platform Prime’s Optimiser Hub, a feature that allows JVMs to exchange performance insights. 

The result is faster startup times, smoother scaling, and more efficient compute usage, leading to over 20% savings on cloud costs. In the entertainment sector, another enterprise has used Optimiser Hub to cut CPU cores and pod counts for mission-critical services by 25%–30%. Optimiser Hub works as a customer-managed service with no changes required to existing Java workloads.

Java applications in modern cloud environments face persistent challenges. Fleets of thousands of JVMs must meet strict performance standards, scale elastically, and restart rapidly during updates. Traditional JVMs operate in isolation, often underperforming and creating unpredictable spikes in resource demand. Enterprises respond by over-provisioning, driving up cloud expenses. 

According to the 2025 State of Java Survey & Report, 71% of respondents report more than 20% of their cloud compute capacity goes unused. Optimiser Hub solves this by enabling JVMs across a fleet to learn from one another, centralising optimisations and maximising efficiency.

Azul Platform Prime combines the Zing JVM, a high-speed, scalable OpenJDK build, with Optimiser Hub. The hub includes two key services:

• Cloud Native Compiler – Centralises just-in-time (JIT) compilation, reducing CPU load on individual JVMs. By caching compiled code, it accelerates runtime performance, allowing smaller instances and lower cloud costs.
• ReadyNow – Tackles Java’s warm-up lag by reusing JIT compiler profiling data. ReadyNow Orchestrator ensures applications use the optimal profile, maintaining responsiveness during traffic spikes, retail rushes, gaming surges, or market opens. It supports faster CI/CD redeployments, smoother fleet rollouts, and quicker recovery from failures.

Scott Sellers, co-founder and CEO of Azul, emphasised the platform’s impact: “Java powers the backbone of the digital economy, but performance challenges with traditional JDKs have led enterprises to overprovision cloud resources and adopt complex operational practices. 

“With the centralised services of Optimiser Hub, Azul Platform Prime has eliminated long-standing tradeoffs of performance and cost by enabling JVMs to learn from each other and collaborate across entire fleets in production, delivering faster, smoother application experiences while driving down cloud costs by 20%+. Optimiser Hub is a must-have for every business running JVM-based, mission-critical workloads in the cloud.”

Azul, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, is the only company fully dedicated to Java. Its solutions power millions of developers, hundreds of millions of devices, and top global enterprises, including 36% of the Fortune 100, leading banks, and brands such as BMW, Mastercard, Salesforce, and Workday.