We are happy to announce the release of Liberica JDK Performance Edition 8, which couples JVM 17 and JDK 8 and immediately increases the performance of JDK 8-based projects up to 10% without major code changes!
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Staying on old JDK is costly, upgrading is resource-consuming
Despite being the most popular Java version, JDK 8 is in deep maintenance, meaning that most performance improvements and new features aren’t backported to this OpenJDK branch. Consequently,
- The hardware is often underutilized because older JDK versions can’t use it as efficiently as the newer ones.
- The cloud costs increase due to inefficient containers.
- User dissatisfaction grows because the application performance can’t be improved to meet user needs.
At some point, tuning garbage collection and adjusting the runtime flags stops yielding results, and the only way to increase application performance is to migrate to a newer JDK version.
But upgrading the JDK version for the enterprise project is complicated and costly because
- Numerous changes were introduced to the platform since JDK 8, which may require significantly rewriting the application code.
- An enterprise project is usually tightly bound to specific libraries and framework versions, so updating them necessitates even more code adjustments.
All the while your developers solve the compatibility issues, application performance may be deteriorated to a great extent.
However, there’s a way out of the vicious circle: you can stay on JDK 8 and get the performance of newer Java versions with Liberica JDK Performance Edition.
Get the JVM 17-level performance without upgrading JDK 8
Liberica JDK Performance Edition 8 (liberica-perf for short) is a version of Liberica JDK based on JDK 8 and HotSpot JVM 17. It enables the enterprises to preserve the project structure based on version 8 and at the same time, enjoy the performance benefits of modern JVM.
Liberica JDK Performance Edition seamlessly integrates the core JVM and HotSpot from JDK 17 directly into JDK 8 or 11 builds, so you’ll change only one component of your stack as opposed to full-fledged migration to a newer JDK version where you have to change everything.
Java stack changes
Therefore, you can migrate your services to liberica-perf 8 with little to no code changes and receive an instant performance boost, which will enable you to optimize hardware utilization and cloud resources consumption, reducing the cost of development:
- Low-latency garbage collectors (sub-millisecond pauses, terabyte heaps)
- Up to 10% faster startup
- 85% better compression speed
- 113% better decompression speed
BellSoft will support JDK 8 until March 2031, so you can plan the migration at your own pace without taking up your developer’s time all at once.
More about performance gains with Liberica JDK Performance Edition
Essential enhancements in liberica-perf 8
Garbage collection improvements:
- Production-ready low-latency ZGC and Shenandoah GC absent in OpenJDK 8;
- Enhanced G1GC with new features such as Parallel Full GC, concurrent cleanup, and heap allocation monitoring.
Key runtime and compiler improvements:
- AppCDS and Dynamic AppCDS absent in OpenJDK 8;
- NUMA-aware allocation absent in OpenJDK 8;
- Enhanced logging framework;
- Enhanced zlib for faster compression and decompression.
Refer to the documentation for a complete list of changes, including added and improved features in Liberica JDK Performance Edition 8.
Liberica JDK Performance Edition can be used for development and execution of Java applications on Linux-based headless or GUI systems. The builds are supported on Intel processors. The installation procedure is as simple as with any Liberica JDK binary. In most cases, you won’t have to change anything in your code. In a few cases, you might have to switch a few runtime options due to the fact that some options were added to or removed from version 17.
Go to Liberica JDK Performance Edition User’s Guide
BellSoft engineers will help you to perform necessary adjustments if required for effortless integration of liberica-perf into your project.
Stay on JDK 8 and profit from your deployments
With Liberica JDK Performance Edition 8, you can elevate the performance of your application to meet modern standards, efficiently reducing the cost of development and increasing user satisfaction, and all of that without migrating to a newer JDK version.
Customers who already have a Liberica JDK Subscription receive Liberica JDK Performance Edition 8 for free together with other solutions for Java development. So if you are already a BellSoft client, you are one click away from solving the migration issue!
If you would like to know more about the services we provide with Liberica JDK, contact us, and we will be happy to answer all your questions.
