Azul Accelerates Growth in Asia Pacific as Region Responds to Oracle Java SE Pricing Change, Escalating Cloud Costs

Azul, the only company 100% focused on Java, has announced strong growth and continued momentum across the Asia Pacific region as organisations turn to its OpenJDK solutions to address cost and performance challenges in the wake of Oracle’s Java SE pricing change and rising cloud expenses.

Region Leverages Azul’s Solutions to Address Business Challenges

Asia Pacific businesses are grappling with new financial pressures as a result of the changes to Oracle’s Java SE pricing policy announced last year, as well as escalating cloud infrastructure costs. Azul’s solutions help organisations address these challenges head on. Azul Platform Core is a drop-in replacement for Oracle Java that delivers a more robust, secure, and cost-effective solution that is typically 70%+ less in support fees than Oracle Java. With Azul Platform Prime, businesses commonly experience a 20%+ decrease in their cloud and infrastructure costs and realize substantial performance gains across their business-critical Java applications.

These factors created substantial tailwinds in APAC in Azul’s fiscal year 2024, with the company reporting a 37% increase in new bookings year-over-year and a strong start to the first quarter of FY25 with a 437% year-over-year surge in growth. The firm’s solutions also resonated particularly well in the banking and finance sector in Asia, which saw a 31% increase in new bookings year-over-year in FY24.

“The Asia Pacific region has long been a strategic focus for Azul, offering immense growth potential and this past year has been no different,” said Dean Vaughan, Vice President of APAC at Azul. “Across the region enterprises are grappling with spiralling cloud costs and growing frustration over Oracle’s Java pricing.”

He added: “On the Oracle side specifically, we have seen a steady increase in audit threats and aggressive sales tactics. These market shifts have steered more customers toward our reliable and cost-effective Java solutions, resulting in our remarkable success in the region. We are also experiencing our highest volume of channel partner opportunity registrations ever, driven by enterprises searching for alternatives to Oracle Java and seeking innovative ways to optimize cloud costs.”

Channel Partner Acceleration

Channel partner growth remained strong, with the percentage of new bookings driven or fulfilled through partners in the region nearly doubling from 38% in FY23 to 72% in FY24. Azul also grew its partner ecosystem substantially in FY24, adding 46 new partners including distributors aligned to emerging market geographies, key country-specific resellers, and pan-region systems integrators who specialise in delivering services to customers that are seeking Java advisory and migration expertise, application modernisation support and cloud cost optimization solutions.

“The company’s momentum in the APAC region underscores the profound impact of our strategic channel partnerships. The substantial investment we’ve made in this ecosystem reinforces our dedication to creating a thriving network of partners that can drive sustained growth and success across the region for both Azul and their own business while delivering significant value to our mutual customers,” said Simon Taylor, Vice President of Global Channel Sales at Azul.

The Java-focused firm hosted its first PartnerConnect Summit in the region on 27 June 2024, in Bangkok, with participation from more than 40 partners from 26 companies.

India Expansion Drives Significant Tailwinds

In FY24, the company expanded its focus in the APAC region, adding headcount as well as sales and marketing support in India. During the fiscal year, the company has engaged with five of the top ten banks in India and three large financial services organizations, and one of India’s largest securities institutions tripled its investment in Azul, saving more than 70% in its Java application support. In addition, two leading systems integrators have partnered with Azul on internal customer deployments and building out a Java migration practice.

“India represents a cornerstone of our strategic expansion in the APAC region,” continued Vaughan. “Our enhanced presence and investment in India have enabled us to forge strong relationships with leading banks and financial institutions, demonstrating the high demand for our cost-effective and high-performance Java solutions. We are proud to support India’s leading enterprises in achieving their technological and financial goals, as well as enterprises throughout the APAC region overall.”