Java at 30: Oracle leaders on why Java 25 matters for the next decade

Marking 30 years of Java's evolution, Java 25 blends simplicity with enterprise power, boosting AI readiness and security to stay relevant in the decade ahead.

- By Shrikanth G

In the fast-changing world of technology, very few programming languages can claim a three-decade run at the centre of enterprise IT. Java, born in the mid-1990s, turned 30 this year, still powering critical workloads across banking, telecom, retail, and government systems. Against a backdrop where newer languages rise and fade in less than a decade, Java continues to reinvent itself. With the release of Java 25, Oracle is signalling not just another upgrade, but a thoughtful re-architecting of how the platform will remain relevant in an AI-driven, cloud-native world.

In an exclusive interaction with Dataquest, Oracle executives - Bernard Traversat, Vice President of Software Development; Chad Arimura, Vice President of Developer Relations; Sharat Chander, Senior Director, Java Product Management, Oracleshared why Java has endured, how Java 25 strikes a balance between simplicity and enterprise power, and what the roadmap looks like for the next decade.

THE SECRET SAUCE: 30 YEARS OF STEWARDSHIP AND THOUGHTFUL EVOLUTION

Asked about Java's resilience, Chad Arimura pointed first to stewardship. "At the top of the list is the incredible commitment by Sun and now Oracle to continue to shepherd the ecosystem forward. OpenJDK, which Oracle stewards and contributes to, has been central to this continuity."

Oracle is signalling not just another upgrade, but a thoughtful re-architecting of how the platform will remain relevant in an AI-driven, cloud-native world.

Sharat Chander reframed Java's journey as "a rise and thoughtful rise," rather than a cycle of rise and fall. "Year after year, the ecosystem has grown to tens of millions of developers and tens of thousands of customers. That is because investments have consistently gone into innovating for modern workloads, ensuring enterprise value, and sustaining robust relationships with developers."