It’s always a head-turner when fierce rivals find something worthy to partner on. Apparently, the future of Java was enough to bring Oracle and Big Blue together for a meeting of the minds.
Oracle and IBM just announced that the companies will collaborate to pave the way for developers and customers to build and innovate on existing Java investments and the OpenJDK reference implementation.
The Oracle-Big Blue collaboration will center on the OpenJDK project, the open-source implementation of the Java Platform, Standard Edition specification, the Java Language, the Java Development Kit, and the Java Runtime Environment.
“The Java community is vital to the evolution of the Java platform,” said Hasan Rizvi, senior vice president at Oracle. “The collaboration between Oracle and IBM builds on the success of OpenJDK as the primary development platform for Java SE.”
Focusing on OpenJDK
The partnership essentially means IBM and Oracle will make the OpenJDK community the primary location for open-source Java SE development. The Java Community Process will continue to be the primary standards body for Java specification work, and both companies will work to enhance the process.
“IBM, Oracle and other members of the Java community working collaboratively in OpenJDK will accelerate the innovation in the Java platform,” said Rod Smith, vice president of emerging technologies at IBM. “Oracle and IBM’s collaboration also signals to enterprise customers that they can continue to rely on the Java community to deliver more open, flexible and innovative new technologies to help grow their business.”
Oracle and IBM also said they will support the recently announced OpenJDK development road map, which accelerates the availability of Java SE across the open-source community. Al Hilwa, an analyst at IDC, thinks this is a healthy move for the market.
Picking Sides
Until this announcement, IBM had been shifting its efforts to Harmony, a parallel implementation of Java by…