Java celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2020. Over the 25 years since its creation, Java, as befits such an age, has reached a certain maturity, but has not lost its youthful enthusiasm and attractiveness. It is still the most popular language for web development in the world. Java is used everywhere in the development of a wide variety of projects, including services for desktop systems, mobile applications and games, as well as in such fashionable sectors of the IT market as big data and IoT (Internet of Things). So, at the 25th year of his life, our fellow Java, as they say, is in his prime. The language is used by more than 90% of all Fortune 500 companies, the TIOBE Index names Java as the most popular programming language based on a number of criteria, and the number of job openings for Java developers around the world continues to grow. To the question of whether it makes sense to start learning Java in 2020, a clear answer can be given right away: yes, it’s definitely worth it. In this article we will talk about why there is no particular doubt about Java’s bright prospects for the near future, whether, at almost 25 years old, this language is more popular than ever, and what interesting things are happening in the global Java community today.
Money, money, money
Let's start with, perhaps, the most important thing, namely, talking about money. So, according to the authoritative resource PayScale, the average annual salary of a Java developer in the world is now about $74 thousand. Not bad, right? Average salaries range from $47 thousand to $106 thousand per year. And experienced Java coders (Senior positions) already have an average salary of $95 thousand per year (from $70 thousand to $139 thousand). At the same time, the number of vacancies for Java developers continues to grow from year to year. According to statistics from one of the leading agencies in the field of IT recruiting, Collabera, from the beginning of 2017 to the end of 2018, the number of Java-related vacancies on this site increased by 80% - from 3.5 thousand to 6.2 thousand. The most vacancies for Java coders are in the USA and India. According to Indeed.com, in the United States the number of Java positions exceeds 31 thousand, and in India - 32 thousand. As for individual companies, the American JPMorgan Chase & Co. pays the most to Java coders. - on average, about $90 thousand per year. Next come TCS and Infosys ($73 thousand per year), Cognizant ($69 thousand) and others. So it would hardly be a great exaggeration to say that now Java developers are simply raking in money with a shovel, taking advantage of the fact that the demand for mobile applications, in the development of which Java is almost always used in one way or another, is growing around the world, due to which the need for Java coders. And it’s not too late to jump on the bandwagon of this train carrying successful Java Pros to a bright future.
New look every six months
The Java language itself, as befits successful 25-year-old guys with a great future, also does not stand aside, does not rest on its laurels, follows fashion and strives to follow trends. So, in 2019, Java switched to a 6-month release cycle of new versions. Previously, new versions of Java were released every two to three years, and sometimes the time interval between releases was six to seven years. Which, to a large extent, even pleased many companies, because innovations did not come too quickly. But now, starting with Java 9, new releases come out in March and September every year. And this is good, because it’s almost 2020, and releasing new versions of anything every 6-7 years is no longer an option. “A 6-month release cycle is a very good approach. I say this as a developer, based on personal experience. If we have a release schedule for a new version scheduled for a certain date, we simply release it with the features that were ready at that time. And if they are not ready, then we postpone them until the next release. But such a regular release of fresh releases is a definite plus,” said Sumit Sharma, Full Stack developer at Greytip Software and author of the DEV Community.
Java in the center of things: IoT and other trending niches
As befits a successful and attractive 25-year-old handsome man, Java is very popular among the hottest things. What exactly “things” are we talking about? About those that are already or will become part of the Internet of Things in the near future. Java is an indispensable solution when developing solutions in such a “hot” and trending niche as IoT. According to the IoT Developer Survey, IoT process architecture solution developers rank Java as their most important programming language. This is all thanks to the JVM (Java Virtual Machine), as it allows developers to write code locally and then port it to small devices such as chips. Java is one of the best solutions for cloud and gateway development in the entire IoT infrastructure. It allows you to use the same ecosystem to measure, collect and analyze data. Many other popular and trending niches cannot do without Java. Big data, augmented reality, self-driving cars, cloud computing - the development of projects in these and a number of other niches is inextricably linked with the use of Java.
Experts: Nothing threatens Java's leadership in the coming years
What do serious guys with expertise and position in society think about our fellow Java? Do they believe that Java is a good match, and are they ready to entrust it with the hearts of their “daughters” - that is, ensuring the smooth operation of complex processes that underlie services and applications with a key role in the business of cool companies (such as, for example, like Uber or Airbnb)? “Often the future is best predicted by looking at the past, because history always repeats itself with slight changes. The balance of power among programming languages is difficult to change, especially in the short term, and Java will continue to lead the way,” said Mark Little, vice president of middleware at Red Hat. “It will be interesting to see if other languages start using the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Not only JVM dialects like Scala and Kotlin, but also individual languages with their own user base, such as Ruby, JavaScript or Python. The JRE already had niche solutions - JRuby (Ruby), Nashorn (JavaScript) and Jython (python). And all NodeJS ports failed. It will be interesting, because integrating an entire language is quite serious. Perhaps Graal will take the virtual machine beyond the Java language,” he added. “In the coming years, Java really needs to become more cloud-native. This is critical as cloud adoption continues to grow. Regarding the overall popularity of Java and its prospects, we cannot and will not abandon the investments that have already been made in this industry and training infrastructure. There is no point in learning a completely new language and starting from scratch. This is why it is also very important that Java works well and is adapted to new environments,” said Anders Wallgren, CTO at Electric Cloud. “In fact, the next few years will play an important role in the development of the Java ecosystem. In the open-source economy, you always need to look for the most rational approach. Large companies and important products should be more proactive in migrating from Java 8 to new versions. And the transition requires a technical uplift. These are changes that, although not very urgent, must be made. Otherwise we will have problems,” said Erik Costlow, chief product officer at Contrast Security.
Verdict
So, as Java celebrates its 25th anniversary, there is every reason to look to the future with optimism and strive for new heights. Industry experts plainly say that no one is seriously planning or even thinking about abandoning Java, simply because a lot of effort, time and money have been invested in this language and its ecosystem, not to mention the projects themselves where it is used. And Java developers have the opportunity to participate in the development of many different niches and entire industries where this language is an important part of work processes. So the question “is it worth learning Java in 2020” is definitely rhetorical. And most likely, it will remain so for many more years.
“A 6-month release cycle is a very good approach. I say this as a developer, based on personal experience. If we have a release schedule for a new version scheduled for a certain date, we simply release it with the features that were ready at that time. And if they are not ready, then we postpone them until the next release. But such a regular release of fresh releases is a definite plus,” said Sumit Sharma, Full Stack developer at Greytip Software and author of the DEV Community.
“Often the future is best predicted by looking at the past, because history always repeats itself with slight changes. The balance of power among programming languages is difficult to change, especially in the short term, and Java will continue to lead the way,” said Mark Little, vice president of middleware at Red Hat. “It will be interesting to see if other languages start using the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Not only JVM dialects like Scala and Kotlin, but also individual languages with their own user base, such as Ruby, JavaScript or Python. The JRE already had niche solutions - JRuby (Ruby), Nashorn (JavaScript) and Jython (python). And all NodeJS ports failed. It will be interesting, because integrating an entire language is quite serious. Perhaps Graal will take the virtual machine beyond the Java language,” he added. “In the coming years, Java really needs to become more cloud-native. This is critical as cloud adoption continues to grow. Regarding the overall popularity of Java and its prospects, we cannot and will not abandon the investments that have already been made in this industry and training infrastructure. There is no point in learning a completely new language and starting from scratch. This is why it is also very important that Java works well and is adapted to new environments,” said Anders Wallgren, CTO at Electric Cloud. “In fact, the next few years will play an important role in the development of the Java ecosystem. In the open-source economy, you always need to look for the most rational approach. Large companies and important products should be more proactive in migrating from Java 8 to new versions. And the transition requires a technical uplift. These are changes that, although not very urgent, must be made. Otherwise we will have problems,” said Erik Costlow, chief product officer at Contrast Security.
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