2022 Java Architecture Trends

The past year has been exciting for the Java community! There have been countless innovations made to popular technologies within the Java ecosystem. In our latest survey, we asked the community what they think the big trends in Java architecture are for 2022.

Java Architecture Trends

In the 10th annual edition of the Java Developer Productivity Report, we explored everything Java — trends, tools, challenges, and roadblocks. One of the themes that has been consistent over the years is the rise of microservices. Review Java architecture trends and the feedback from your peers on how its adoption and usage is impacting teams.

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Java Architecture Overview

We asked respondents to share the architecture of the primary application they develop. Microservices-based applications were the most popular at 32%, followed by monolithic applications at 22%.

What this means: In 2021, we asked people this same question. At that time, 49% were developing microservices-based applications, followed by monolithic applications at 42%. Going back even further, the 2020 survey showed that 51% were developing using microservices. This sharp decrease in usage in 2022 could indicate that while microservices were supposed to faster, the added complexity could be causing companies to look at other Java architecture models.

Related Guide: Explore Java Microservices

Status of Microservices Java Application Architecture

For those who reported using microservices as their Java application architecture, we asked a series of follow up questions.

Microservices Adoption

When asked to share their status for microservice adoption, the responses showed that most organizations either had moved fully microservice-based applications (44%) or were currently transitioning to a microservices architecture (44%).

What this means: This question indicates companies who are using microservices for their Java architecture are moving quickly to adoption. In 2021, these percentages were 30% for full adoption and 36% for currently transitioning. The sharp rise — from 66% to 88% — in the responses for transitioning or fully working in microservices shows that organizations are maturing in their Java architecture.

Related Webinar:Making the Move to Microservices

Microservices Per Application

When we asked respondents about microservices per application, 30% reported having 1-5 microservices, while 24% reported having between 5-10 microservices. At the higher end of the scale, 22% reported having 20+ microservices.

What this means: When compared to the 2021 report, 34% reported having 1-5 microservices, while 36% reported having between 5-10 microservices. At the higher end of the scale, 14% used 10-20 microservices and 16% reported having 20+ microservices. Although numbers have increased, most organizations still have under 10 microservices, meaning microservice implementation is slow or teams are still working with relatively small applications.

Related Webinar: Digital Transformation with Microservices

Microservice Application Start-Up Times

When asked to estimate the percentage increase in start-up time for their microservice-based application, since it was created, 60% had experienced an increase. 13% of respondents reported over a 50% increase in the startup time.

What this means: Why the increase? Wasn’t microservices supposed to save time? There are several reasons why this is happening.

As microservices-based applications gradually gain modules, and as development teams build out their applications, companies start seeing similar startup times when compared to monolithic applications. Although, most companies decide to make the transition to microservices due to other benefits beyond start-up times. Faster initial start-up times is usually just an extra bonus experienced with applications are in their infancy.

Related Blog: How to Find Microservices Performance Issues

Microservice Application Redeployment Times

Survey respondents reported 5+ minute deployment time for microservices-based applications, with 26% of respondents reporting a deployment time of over 10 minutes.

What this means: Breaking down the results by company size, companies with over 100 employees experienced higher redeploy times, with nearly 50% reporting deploy times over five minutes for their containerized environment. Meanwhile, only 37% of smaller companies, with under 100 employees, reported times over five minutes.

One of the biggest draws for adopting microservices was supposed to be the decrease in the amount of time it takes to redeploy the application. In theory, teams could redeploy specific services rather than an entire monolith.

Based on these results, organizations are not experiencing the expected. Redeploy times have stayed flat, or even increased in some cases.

Related Blog: Common Performance Problems With Microservices

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What Is the Future of Java Architecture?

Over the course of our annual reports, we’ve seen how microservices has changed the development landscape. While they continue to be considered a fix-all solution for Java applications, redeploys are an ongoing issue for developers.

With analyst groups like Gartner reporting that 50% of skilled technology roles may go unfilled in 2022, development teams and organizations need to get the most from their limited development hours. This means finding a solution to help developers move faster, while continuing to build out their microservice Java architecture.

Productivity-boosting tools like JRebel can help. Improve productivity for your team by eliminating rebuild and redeploy time. It can help your team finish sprints early, no matter your Java application architecture. 

See how much time your team could save by eliminating redeploys during your 14-day free trial. 

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