News

BellSoft Upgrades Legacy Java Performance Tool as Enterprises Cling to Older Versions

Company targets organizations still running Java 8 and 11 with no-migration performance boost

• By John K. Waters
• July 23, 2025

BellSoft, one of the largest external contributors to OpenJDK announced on Tuesday a significant upgrade to its Liberica JDK Performance Edition, incorporating Java Virtual Machine technology from JDK 21 to enhance performance for organizations still running older Java versions, without requiring code changes or migration.

The enhanced release targets the significant portion of enterprises that continue using Java 8 and 11 for business-critical applications. According to BellSoft’s 2024 survey,, as of 2025, 28.8% of businesses still run Java 8, while Java 11 remains widely deployed across enterprise environments.

Drop-in Performance Gains
The upgraded Performance Edition integrates the core JVM and HotSpot components from JDK 21 directly into builds of JDK 8 and 11, promising 5-10% better performance in most workloads, with gains reaching up to 40% in select cases. The company says the upgrade requires no code modifications or system migrations.

"Many companies are still running business-critical applications on Java 8 or 11 not because they're behind, but because those platforms are stable, proven, and deeply integrated into their workflows," said Alexander Belokrylov, BellSoft's co-founder and CEO, in a statement.

Key improvements include faster startup times, reduced latency, and more than double the compression speeds through the integration of zlib-ng, a fork of the popular zlib compression library. The release also incorporates production-ready ZGC with generational support and optimized garbage collection.

Enterprise Adoption Challenges
BellSoft's 2024 survey found that two-thirds of developers still support applications running on Java 11 or earlier versions. Nearly a quarter of respondents reported allocating additional budget specifically to improve performance on older Java runtimes.

The persistence of legacy Java versions reflects common enterprise realities: established codebases, integration complexities, and the significant costs associated with major platform migrations. While newer Long-Term Support versions of Java offer improvements, many organizations prioritize stability over feature updates for production systems.

Benchmark testing using Spring PetClinic showed compression speed improvements of 126% for compression and 149% for decompression compared to standard OpenJDK builds. In enterprise workload testing, throughput nearly doubled in some configurations, while latency in memory-intensive operations was reduced by nearly 100% when switching from JDK 8 to the Performance Edition with ZGC.

Broader OpenJDK Collaboration
The upgrade comes as BellSoft expands its involvement in OpenJDK development through partnerships with major technology companies. The company has teamed with VMware to enhance OpenJDK support, particularly for ARM processors and cloud-based microservices architectures.

BellSoft, which describes itself as one of the most significant external contributors to OpenJDK, has focused on improvements for ARM64 architectures and containerized deployments. The company created JEP 315 to enhance string and array operations on AArch64 processors and is also involved with JEP 386, which aims to introduce OpenJDK support to Alpine Linux.

The collaboration addresses growing pressure on Java from competing languages like JavaScript, Go, and Python, particularly in microservices environments where Java's higher memory requirements and longer startup times can be disadvantageous. A 2020 JRebel survey found 50% of Java developers working with microservices architectures.

Market Positioning
BellSoft's approach reflects broader trends in enterprise software, where vendors increasingly offer performance optimizations and compatibility layers rather than requiring wholesale platform migrations. The company positions its Performance Edition as addressing practical enterprise concerns about maintaining legacy systems while improving performance.

The upgraded Liberica JDK Performance Edition is available for JDK 8 and JDK 11 on x86_64 and AArch64 architectures, supporting Linux, Windows, and macOS operating systems. Each version incorporates the JVM from JDK 21 while maintaining compatibility with older Java language specifications.

Originally launched in April 2024, the Performance Edition represents BellSoft's bid to capture enterprise customers seeking performance improvements without the complexity and risk of major Java version upgrades. The company offers the solution as a direct replacement for existing Java installations, targeting organizations where migration costs outweigh the benefits of moving to current Java versions.