Founded in 1850 and serving 74,000 students with 8,100 staff, The University of Sydney is one of the most prestigious universities in Australia.
Operating one of the world’s top research universities requires a vast IT footprint comprised of many technologies, including thousands of desktops running Java-based applications and frameworks.
The university’s Information and Communications Technology Vendor Management Office is tasked with sourcing, implementing, and overseeing a wide array of software and hardware vendors. After examining the university’s Java estate, the team decided to explore their options for a secure, supported Java runtime that didn’t carry the risk of time-consuming audits.
The University of Sydney selected Azul as its sole Java provider two years ago, switching from an Oracle Java runtime environment to Azul’s Java Platform. Azul is the second largest Java vendor behind Oracle, supports more versions of Java than any other vendor, including Oracle, and provides a secure, compatible, and compliant Java runtime for typically 70% less cost than Oracle.
The selection was made via CAUDIT – the Council of Australasian University Directors of Information Technology – which negotiated an education sector-wide offer from Azul. The University of Sydney took advantage of the offer after doing its own due diligence.
“The CAUDIT group generally try to magnify the intentions of every university, coalesce them into one single request and try to pass it onto a supplier for them to provide a consistent offer,” said Emiliano Fisanotti, Vendor Management Specialist and University Software Licensing Community Executive Member, The University of Sydney.
This announcement takes place amid major changes to Oracle Java pricing and a rapid increase in the adoption of OpenJDK-based Java runtimes. By some estimates, usage of Oracle Java has fallen from roughly 75% in 2020 to 34% in 2022.
The university benefits from Azul’s superior engineering support based on more than 20-year history of Java expertise
Substantial cost savings
Greater predictability and ease of doing business
No more fear of Oracle price increases or audits
“As with most universities, we are always looking for efficiency from our IT vendor relationships, not just by lowering costs, but also by eliminating uncertainty and distractions. Supporting so many departments and managing a wide range of vendor relationships means I can’t afford to worry about unexpected headaches such as price increases and audits. With Azul we found a trusted partner who was easy to work with and provided a secure, drop-in replacement for Oracle Java.”
Azul Platform Core is designed for universities like the University of Sydney, with the certified builds, tight security, and cost efficiencies you need to run today’s business–critical, Java-based services.
