Why Safe Systems Made the Switch from Java to Amazon Corretto for Network Management

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. On April 16, 2019, Oracle (who owns Java and its development) changed its client-based Java model from free to fee-based. This created a huge issue in the marketplace because so many businesses, consumers, applications used Java and based their code off of Java. So now, to get Oracle’s version of Java requires a fee per device. Many companies are facing an update and licensing management issue as they are forced to track who in their organization has Java; who needs it; and whether there are enough licenses. At this point, they must update only the computers who have purchased licenses.

It seemed like overnight, supporting and updating Java went from “not a big deal” to a headache for a lot of IT people. Luckily several companies saw the issue and began creating their own Java client based on the open source code that was released for Java. Several major players like IBM, Amazon, and even Oracle started creating their own versions of Java. Safe Systems researched which of these versions would be supported by the core providers and software vendors in the financial industry, and Amazon Corretto emerged as a top choice because it is free to use and is backed by a reputable company.

What’s Next?

At the end of December 2020, Safe Systems has decided to no longer support the fee-based version Oracle offers of Java as we now have no way to confirm if a license has been purchased or not. Instead, we have worked with financial institutions and have adopted Amazon Corretto as a supportable alternative to the Oracle fee-based version. Safe Systems will support, update, and report on Amazon Corretto as part of our third-party patching program with NetComply™.

Safe Systems did not make this decision lightly. We worked with multiple institutions using various banking applications to ensure that this could be a widely accepted switch in the industry. We spent hundreds of man hours testing and implementing the appropriate changes to ensure this is a smooth transition. We are happy to say that we can successfully support Amazon Corretto as a key application that in turn supports your critical banking applications.

NetComply is built around monitoring, alerting, automation, and supporting your machines, but it is also about keeping key applications fully patched so that your network is as secure as possible. We encourage each of you to confirm all of your applications work with Amazon Corretto before switching. If they do, there is nothing left to do but sit back and let NetComply take it from there.