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[javaone 2025] Engineering a Modern Java Platform: Making Kubernetes Work for Java Teams

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Speaker: Stephen Millidge

See the table of contents for more posts

In last 30 years

  • More devices – ex: smartphones
  • Containers
  • K8S
  • Cloud
  • Elastic Infrastructure

Modernization

  • Because Java so successful, a lot of of mission critical applications
  • 47% of apps need modernization.
  • Wouldn’t call legacy because they are running the business
  • Expensive to write from scratch and not a lot of benefit in general
  • Goal: Adopt new infrastructure
  • How; Lift and Shift
  • Why: Scalability and high availability, elasticity, rapid provisioning, software defined infrastructure, cloud migration
  • Most monoliths aren’t that big and can put on cloud intact. Don’t have to switch to microservices

Kubernetes

  • Helps with complexity of running at scale
  • Container Orchestration/Management Platform
  • “poor application server”
  • Goal: maximize uptime

Challenges for Java Developers

  • Context switching from Java code to managing K8S
  • Complex setup
  • High learning curve
  • Steps: upload jar/war, scan for config, compare config values, define config map/secrets, define container/service/pod, launch pod, setup DNS names, configure routing, request SSL cert, integrate/monitoring.

DevOps

  • Move Dev and Ops closer together
  • “The developers do ops”. Rare for ops person to do development

Platform Engineering

  • Offer developer platforms to help teams developer/deploy/manage apps
  • Focus on automation, self service and streamlined workflows to improve developer productivity and system reliability
  • EU is regulating software – supply chain rules

To create platform

  • Can build own
  • Buy from technology partner [he’s from Payara and made a comment about it being a vendor talk; I didn’t realize it was]

My take

Fun fact: he took the SCJP 1.0.2. That is a very specific version number.

The room was packed. He needed a bigger room. I wish he had gotten to K8S earlier in the session but was good once he got there. ( I think it was 12 minutes in or so). Then there was another 15 minutes that felt general at which point I stopped paying attention

Overall the session was fine, but it wasn’t what I was expecting.