Newcastle City Council moved its Java runtime and support relationship from Oracle Java to Azul Platform Core after Oracle’s 2019 licensing and support changes removed the council’s access to free quarterly security patches for Java 8. Rather than rewrite critical systems or run unsupported software, the council selected an OpenJDK-based Azul distribution with commercial support for the older Java versions its applications still required.
The security problem behind the decision
Newcastle City Council serves more than 300,000 residents. Its financial-management, housing and benefits applications depended on Java 8, making the runtime part of essential public services rather than an isolated developer tool.
According to Azul’s 2024 customer materials, Oracle’s 2019 licensing and support changes left the council without free quarterly Java security patches. Annual security reviews repeatedly identified Java as a major concern in the council’s Public Services Network (PSN) compliance work. Paul Doney, the council’s Service Manager of Digital Solutions, said: “We do a security review every year as part of our PSN (Public Services Network) compliance. And there’s always been a concern around Java.”
Continuing with unpatched Java would have left known vulnerabilities in systems used daily by staff and residents. Tom Bone, ICT Information Security Manager, described the risk this way: “If we kept our state the way it was, it would mean that we were knowingly running out-of-date versions of the Java Virtual Machine. We could have suffered a breach because of that.”
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Why the council did not simply abandon Java
The council reportedly considered leaving Java altogether, but replacing or rewriting the applications would have been expensive and potentially disruptive. It also considered using a free OpenJDK distribution. That option could reduce licensing expenditure, but would not necessarily provide the supported patch access, legacy-version coverage and assistance required for a large public-sector estate.
The selected product, Azul Platform Core, is an OpenJDK-based Java distribution. Its commercial support was intended to provide security fixes for the Java versions already used by the council, allowing older applications to continue operating while reducing the pressure for an immediate rewrite or upgrade.
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| Option | Potential benefit | Issue for this estate |
|---|---|---|
| Stay with the existing Oracle arrangement | Minimal technical change | The council no longer had the free quarterly Java 8 security-patch access it needed. |
| Rewrite or replace Java applications | Could remove long-term Java legacy | High cost, compatibility work and service-continuity risk for financial, housing and benefits systems. |
| Use a free OpenJDK distribution | No commercial runtime charge | Would not by itself guarantee the supported legacy-version patches and assistance the council required. |
| Use Azul Platform Core | OpenJDK compatibility with commercial support and legacy-version coverage | Introduces a commercial-support cost; the case materials do not state the contract price. |
What changed in the migration
The practical change was a runtime substitution and support change, not an immediate application rewrite. The council moved the Java runtime used by its existing systems to Azul Platform Core and established a support relationship intended to restore access to security updates for the versions in production.
Azul’s customer story says the deployment covered 5,000 desktops and more than 1,000 employees. About 1,100 employees were described as using the essential Java-based systems daily. Those figures overlap in the published accounts and should be read as the vendor’s description of the rollout, not as independently audited council statistics.
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Reported results—and what they do not prove
- Azul reported that more than 80% of the council’s IT security vulnerabilities were attributed to Java in the pre-change audit context.
- Azul then reported that more than 80% of the council’s IT vulnerabilities were remediated or eliminated after the move.
- The vendor said the rollout produced no performance impact, service disruption or complaints from service users. Computer Weekly also reported the no-disruption and no-performance-impact framing.
These are outcomes published by Azul in 2024 customer materials, with overlapping figures in its customer story and announcement; they are not independent test results. The public accounts do not describe the audit methodology, provide an independent before-and-after measurement, or publish application-by-application compatibility results.
Newcastle executives gave positive assessments. Bone called Azul support “a lifesaver” and said, “Azul provided the best support we have ever received.” Jenny Nelson, Head of ICT & Digital, said the strategic partnership “significantly reduced our security risk level with our Java applications and Java-based infrastructure.” These statements are customer endorsements reproduced in Azul’s materials, rather than an external evaluation.
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What this case means for other public-sector IT teams
Check patch coverage for every production version
“Java support” is not a single entitlement. Before selecting a provider, inventory the exact major and update versions in use, the operating systems they run on, and whether security patches remain available for each one.
Test legacy compatibility before changing the runtime
Older applications can depend on particular Java behaviours, libraries, certificate stores, browser integrations or desktop deployment methods. A supported distribution is useful only if those applications continue to run under the replacement runtime.
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Compare support cost with operational risk
A free binary may still require internal staff to monitor advisories, build patches, test releases and handle incidents. Compare the commercial subscription with that workload, the cost of remediation and the consequences of running unsupported software. Newcastle’s published case does not disclose its contract value or verified savings.
Plan continuity for resident-facing services
Use staged deployment, rollback procedures and service-owner sign-off for systems such as benefits, housing and finance. The Newcastle account reports no disruption, but it does not publish the council’s migration schedule or rollback design.
Include procurement and compliance requirements
Public bodies must evaluate supplier terms, support response commitments, software provenance, vulnerability disclosure, data-handling implications and procurement rules alongside technical compatibility.
What remains unknown
- The contract price and recurring support cost.
- The exact migration-completion date.
- Which applications and Java versions were tested, changed or retired.
- The independent methodology behind the reported vulnerability reduction.
- Whether the council plans a later application modernization or Java-version upgrade.
Azul’s detailed customer story is dated October 3, 2024, and its announcement is dated August 14, 2024. Those dates establish when the vendor published the account, not necessarily when every desktop or application completed migration.
Bottom line
Newcastle’s switch was primarily a security-and-support decision. Oracle’s changed Java 8 support model left the council needing a dependable way to patch an estate of older, business-critical applications. Azul Platform Core offered an OpenJDK-compatible runtime with commercial support, allowing the council to address that exposure without an immediate rewrite. The reported rollout and vulnerability results are encouraging, but they remain vendor-published claims rather than independently verified measurements.
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