Oracle’s Java 8 Enterprise Performance Pack, a drop-in replacement for JDK 8 that promises to bring Java 17 performance to Java 8 workloads, is being made available on public download pages on Oracle.com, the company announced on April 18. Previously, the package was offered only through My Oracle Support for existing customers.
Production use of the Java 8 Enterprise Performance Pack requires either a paid Java SE subscription or to be running on Oracle Cloud. But use of it is free for development, testing, prototyping on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and personal use. It is available for download under the Java SE OTN license.
A drop-in replacement for Java 8 workloads on Linux servers, Java 8 Enterprise Performance Pack was introduced by Oracle in October 2022 to bring better performance to legacy Java 8 server workloads. Significant boosts in performance and memory management were sought, with Java 8 users able to leverage improvements brought to Java since Java 8 first arrived in March 2014.
Users of the Java 8 Enterprise Performance Pack have reported an approximate 20% performance increase without code or configuration changes, and even greater improvements with simple configuration updates, according to Oracle.