SINGAPORE, June 27, 2024 – Azul, the only company entirely focused on Java, today announced robust growth and sustained momentum across the Asia Pacific region as organizations increasingly adopt its OpenJDK solutions to tackle cost and performance challenges following Oracle’s Java SE pricing changes and escalating cloud costs.
Strategic Focus on APAC Yields Significant Gains
Asia Pacific businesses are facing new financial pressures due to Oracle’s revised Java SE pricing policy announced last year, along with rising cloud infrastructure expenses. Azul’s solutions offer a direct response to these challenges. Azul Platform Core serves as a drop-in replacement for Oracle Java, providing a more robust, secure, and cost-effective solution that typically reduces support fees by over 70% compared to Oracle Java. With Azul Platform Prime, businesses often see a 20%+ reduction in their cloud and infrastructure costs, alongside significant performance improvements in their critical Java applications.
These factors contributed to substantial growth for Azul in APAC during fiscal year 2024, with the company reporting a 37% year-over-year increase in new bookings. The first quarter of FY25 also showed a strong start with a 437% year-over-year surge in growth. Azul’s solutions were particularly well-received in the banking and finance sector in Asia, which saw a 31% year-over-year increase in new bookings for FY24.
“The Asia Pacific region has always 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. “Enterprises across the region are grappling with soaring cloud costs and growing frustration over Oracle’s Java pricing. Specifically, on the Oracle side, we have witnessed a steady increase in audit threats and aggressive sales tactics. These market shifts have driven more customers toward Azul’s 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 seeking alternatives to Oracle Java and innovative ways to optimize cloud costs.”
Channel Partner Network Nearly Doubles Contributions
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 significantly expanded its partner ecosystem in FY24, adding 46 new partners, including distributors in emerging market geographies, key country-specific resellers, and pan-region systems integrators specializing in Java advisory and migration expertise, application modernization support, and cloud cost optimization solutions.
“Azul’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 businesses while delivering significant value to our mutual customers,” said Simon Taylor, Vice President of Global Channel Sales at Azul.
Azul is hosting its first PartnerConnect Summit in the region on June 27, 2024, in Bangkok, with participation from more than 40 partners from 26 companies.
India Expansion Drives Major Growth and Engagement
In FY24, Azul intensified its focus in the APAC region, increasing headcount and bolstering sales and marketing support in India. During the fiscal year, the company engaged with five of the top 10 banks in India, three large financial services organizations, and one of India’s largest securities institutions, which tripled its investment in Azul, saving more than 70% in Java application support costs. Additionally, two leading systems integrators partnered with Azul for internal customer deployments and to develop a Java migration practice.
“India represents a cornerstone of our strategic expansion in the APAC region,” Vaughan continued. “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.”