Java in the clouds. How cloud applications are taking over the world and why they need Java

We continue our series of materials on the use of Java in the most “hot” and trending niches of the IT market. In past articles, we have already talked about the reasons for the popularity of Java in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT) and analyzed why not a single full-fledged Big Data project can do without it . Next in line is the next megatrend niche — clouds and cloud services. “If people ask me what cloud computing and cloud services are, I try not to go into the jungle of complex definitions, but simply say that clouds are a way to better manage your business.” Marc Benioff, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Salesforce.

cloud computing. Why "head in the clouds" is cool

To begin with, I must say that now cloud services, at least in the West and in developed countries, are no longer a fashionable IT trend, such as the Internet of Things or artificial intelligence (AI). The fashion trend of “clouds” was about ten years ago. Now cloud services are our harsh (or not so) IT reality and an integral part of most business processes. But from this, “cloud” technologies, of course, do not become less cool. And for a programmer who would like to work in large companies and on serious projects, it will be difficult to do without knowledge of the clouds. Today, many of us use cloud services all the time without even thinking about it - for example, when booking hotels online, ordering and paying for food delivery from restaurants, or simply browsing the Facebook news feed. Companies around the world are actively moving to cloud services, because it is more convenient and allows you to improve productivity along with the simplification of many business processes. What specific advantages does the introduction of cloud services give to companies and why has business been increasingly “flying into the clouds” for more than a year now? Let's briefly go over the main points.

• Cost reduction and savings

  For any business, profitability comes first, and the use of clouds can significantly reduce costs. As a result, all large companies, albeit at different speeds, are moving towards transferring all tasks that can be transferred there to the clouds. Indeed, you can do without the need to own and maintain a huge physical IT infrastructure, along with the maintenance of a staff to maintain it.

• Reliability and high uptime

  Today, most major cloud service providers manage to maintain the highest level of uptime - 99.99%. Of course, such reliability cannot but be liked by businesses, because it allows them to ensure the almost uninterrupted operation of their resources and applications.

• Availability and rapid scalability

  Clouds give startups and small companies access to the same level of technical resources as large corporations. And they can quickly scale their business with minimal infrastructure costs. This has already had and continues to have a huge impact on the market in general, and on the IT industry in particular. Increasingly, we see how small startups appear and successfully compete with giants, overtaking them in innovation and mobility. This happens not least due to the spread of affordable clouds around the world.

“Cloud computing is hugely empowering. Now anyone with internet access and a credit card can run and manage applications using the resources of today's data centers. Thanks to the cloud, innovation is accelerating and getting cheaper.” Jamal Mazhar, founder and CEO of Kaavo.

How is Java used in cloud computing?

According to a survey of more than 600 IT professionals worldwide by the non-profit organization Cloud Foundry Foundation, Java is the most popular language for developing enterprise cloud applications. It was chosen by 57% of experts who use cloud computing in their work. If we talk about why Java is popular, including in the cloud environment (in addition to other trending niches), the reasons for such popularity will be the same as in the case of other areas, namely, simplicity, adaptability, platform independence and reliability of Java . The ability to run the same program on different systems and the widest choice of libraries make Java very popular and in demand in the cloud. “Clouds equalize companies of different sizes in opportunities. Clouds are for everyone. Clouds are democracy.” Marc Benioff, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Salesforce.

Popular Java Development Tools in the Cloud

And now let's take a quick look at the most popular tools for developing Java applications in the cloud.

1. Google App Engine

   Google App Engine makes it easy to deploy and run standard Java web applications using a Servlet (a Servlet is a Java interface whose implementation extends the functionality of a server). App Engine apps automatically scale based on incoming traffic. Google App Engine also supports a huge number of different features, including load balancing, microservices, authorization, relational and non-relational databases for different tasks and amounts of information, memcache, traffic sharing, logging, search, versioning, deployment and rollback, as well as security scan.

2. Cloud Foundry

   Cloud Foundry is an open source cloud computing platform offered as a service (PaaS model, platform as a service). It is managed by the Cloud Foundry Foundation. Cloud Foundry was originally developed by VMware, then moved to Pivotal Software, but returned to VMware in late 2019 after it acquired Pivotal.

   Cloud Foundry supports the full development life cycle, from the initial stages to all stages of testing and product deployment. Thus, Cloud Foundry is a good fit for a continuous delivery strategy. Users have access to one or more spaces, which typically correspond to stages in the development lifecycle. For example, an application that is ready for QA testing can be deployed in the QA space of this project. At the same time, different users may have different access rights to different spaces within the same project.

3. Oracle Java Cloud Service

   Oracle Java Cloud Service (JCS) is part of the Oracle Cloud enterprise business cloud environment, which offers self-service business applications delivered in an integrated development and deployment platform with the means to rapidly scale up and create new services.

   Oracle Java Cloud Service allows users to quickly create and configure an Oracle WebLogic Server domain and set up a Java EE application environment without having to worry about setting up infrastructure or platform details on their own.

   JCS supports the latest web technologies and offers customers extensive configuration and integration options for any web application, virtually unlimited scalability, automatic load balancing, and a number of other convenient features, such as automatic updating of all systems and guaranteeing the integrity of data and applications with regular backups.

4. AWS SDK for Java

   Amazon provides the complete set of tools, documentation, and code samples you need to develop secure, reliable, and scalable Java applications in the AWS cloud.

   Eclipse Java IDE users can get started with the SDK using the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse and IDEA. AWS Toolkit for Eclipse is a plug-in for the Eclipse Java IDE that makes it easy to build, deploy, and debug Java applications using Amazon Web Services.

   Amazon also provides a specific set of APIs for many AWS services, including Amazon S3, Amazon EC2, DynamoDB, and more. The single download package includes the AWS Java Library, code samples, and documentation.

5. Jelastic

   Jelastic (short for Java Elastic) is a hosting platform for Java and PHP (as well as Node, Ruby, Python and Go) with the ability to run and scale Java and PHP applications without manually provisioning a server.

   One of the important “chips” of Jelastic is the service payment model. Unlike standard cloud hosting with a fixed fee, Jelastic users pay only for the resources they consume, and the cost of the service varies every hour.

   Today, the Jelastic platform is rapidly becoming the standard for cloud service providers around the world and is gaining ground in the enterprise market by providing superior turnkey cloud environments at a fraction of the cost of existing virtualization solutions.

6. Heroku Java

   Heroku is a cloud-based PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) platform based on a managed container model with integrated data services and a powerful ecosystem for deploying and running modern applications.

   Heroku supports a range of programming languages, including Java, Node.js, Scala, Clojure, Python, PHP, Ruby, and Go. The service makes it easy to deploy and scale Java applications in the cloud.

7. Spring Cloud

   Spring Cloud is a set of tools from Pivotal that provides solutions for building robust cloud applications. This framework facilitates application development by providing solutions to many common problems that arise when moving to a distributed environment.

   “With clouds, individuals and small businesses can create high-end, enterprise-class services at a fraction of the cost with the click of a finger.”

   Roy Stephan, founder and CEO of PierceMatrix.

Epilogue

As we can see, cloud computing is another area of ​​the IT market where the future lies and where Java is not just used, but often the main language. Without our beloved Java, it will be difficult for many companies to imagine the organization of technological processes. And with the rapid transition of businesses and organizations to the clouds, the demand for Java programmers, who not only own this language, but also know how to use cloud tools and technologies, is also increasing.