Many would agree that 2020 was a challenging year for the global communities. We at BellSoft welcome the challenge; it’s our second nature! It turns out, last year was a big one for us.
Compared to 2019, we almost doubled the number of users and more than tripled downloads. People are discovering new aspects of Liberica JDK, while our engineering team (which is 1.5 times bigger now) never stops adding new exciting features.
Our progressive open source Java runtime interests not only private developers but large corporations, too. Last year we signed important support contracts with Pivotal, SoftChalk, and Flow Traders. BellSoft found new partners in VMware, with whom we work on improving the Java platform and develop the VMware Tanzu user community. Another big collaboration was with Karakun on a new bundled product: Liberica JDK with OpenWebStart. Furthermore, we continue our partnership agreement with JetBrains to provide critical patches and security updates for JetBrains Runtime.
We consider technology standards to be very important in keeping Java™ and its community vibrant. And easily accessible technology standards help the ecosystem thrive. Thanks to that adherence, in November 2020, our CTO Aleksei Voitylov was elected to the Java Community Process (JCP) Executive Committee, who essentially guide the JDK evolution. Here’s our statement: BellSoft is ready to become a broadcaster for those who are routinely working with the language first-hand. We’ll try to translate your voices into actions, maintaining the transparent and dependable nature of the communication process and promoting technological development based on the needs of the OpenJDK community.
Liberica JDK releases are concurrent with Oracle Java SE, and last year we pushed six new versions of our product. With the first update of 2020, we introduced a unique Lite flavor optimized for microservices and high-density deployments in clouds. Together with the Alpine Linux port integrated into the upcoming JDK 16 with full native support for the musl C library, this development helped us achieve the smallest Docker container on the market.
We kept on reducing the size of this tiny Liberica JDK image throughout the year. Small container images are indispensable in production: they cut down storage expenses and increase deployment speed immensely. Now, BellSoft’s microcontainer is 1/7 the size of the standard one, and it’s only the beginning!
In 2021, we’ll keep the momentum going: grow the business, increase the user base, and innovate ahead of market trends. Our unique microcontainer will become even more lightweight (thanks to reduced static and dynamic footprint), and Liberica JDK will get supported on more platforms, including Apple M1, AArch64, and AWS. The global plans involve expanding to Asia and launching an internship program for young and talented Java developers. And of course, we will always deliver High-Powered Support and be a trusted partner to our customers.
“We would like to thank all of BellSoft’s clients, millions of Liberica users, and the OpenJDK community for trusting us and choosing our products in 2020. We are happy to contribute to the incredible global expertise in Java. As world-class JDK experts, we know that disregard for proper IT hygiene can lead to perverse outcomes: system malfunctions, compromised data or leaked data, both corporate and personal. That’s why we are working on truly innovative ideas that we share with the industry. We do our utmost to provide customers with fast and professional support, high confidence, and tools to ensure the benchmark security of the Java platform,” says Alex Belokrylov, the CEO of BellSoft.
