Enhanced Performance: Oracle’s Enterprise Pack for Java 8
Oracle has recently introduced the Java SE Subscription Enterprise Performance Pack, aimed at enhancing the performance of legacy Java 8 server workloads up to the standards of Java 17. This offering, unveiled on October 17, brings modern garbage collection algorithms and other optimizations to Java 8 environments, which have remained popular despite being nearly nine years old.
The Enterprise Performance Pack serves as a seamless upgrade for JDK 8 users, offering improvements accumulated over the seven-year gap between JDK 8’s release in March 2014 and JDK 17’s release in September 2021. Key enhancements include advanced memory management, performance boosts, compact strings, enhanced observability features, and numerous other optimizations.
Available through MyOracleSupport for Java SE subscription customers and OCI users without additional charges, the pack promises significant benefits for JDK 8 workloads, particularly those operating at near memory or CPU capacity. Oracle reports testing its own products and cloud services with up to 40% improvements in memory and performance for heavily loaded applications. Even applications not operating at peak capacity could see up to a 5% performance increase.
Despite the age of JDK 8, it remains widely used, with 46.45% of Java applications in production still running on it, according to New Relic’s 2022 report on the Java ecosystem. Both JDK 8 and JDK 17 are Long-Term Support (LTS) releases, ensuring stability and longevity compared to non-LTS feature releases like JDK 19, which Oracle supports for only six months at the Premier level.
To maximize the benefits of the Enterprise Performance Pack, Oracle recommends that users familiarize themselves with the documentation. For example, configuring the scalable low-latency ZGC garbage collector can improve application responsiveness significantly, achieved by enabling the -XX:+UseZGC option.
The Enterprise Performance Pack supports headless Linux 64-bit workloads on both Intel and Arm-based systems, catering to a broad range of enterprise environments seeking to modernize their Java infrastructure while maintaining compatibility with existing JDK 8 applications.