Right on the heels of dropping support for Java 7, Oracle has announced its timetable for releasing Java 9. The new version isn’t expected until- wait for it- September 22, 2016, which should give software vendors like SAP plenty of time to plan ahead. UPDATE: Oracle is planning on releasing Java 9 in July 2017.
Although SAP’s Java plans are in-line with Oracle’s road map, it’s still causing grief for organizations still clinging bitterly to their guns and Java 6. SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 doesn’t officially support Java 6 and the Web Intelligence Java applet in BI 4.1 goes a step further- it simply doesn’t like Java 6. With Java 7 officially in the dustbin of history as of April 2015 (see InfoWorld article, Oracle to end publicly available security fixes for Java 7 this month), thankfully most versions of BI 4.0 and BI 4.1 already include Java 8 support (see related article, Are You Ready for Java 8)?
A larger question for SAP analytics customers is whether or not we’ll still care about Java by September 2016. So far, SAP has been quiet about its plans to close the feature gap between the HTML and Java editions of Web Intelligence. But expect to start hearing official news about SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.2- planned for an “end of year” release- in the coming weeks and months.
With any luck, we won’t have to care about Java 9 by the time it arrives next year.
Still managing multiple versions of Java in your enterprise? Check out our tips and tricks. What are your thoughts on Web Intelligence and Java?
For further reading:
- Mark your calendars: Java 9 lands next year published May 7, 2015 in InfoWorld
- Oracle to end publicly available security fixes for Java 7 this month published April 15, 2015 in InfoWorld
- Gear up for Java SE 9 published February 9, 2017 by Oracle