Council eliminated Java vulnerabilities, accounting for more than 80% of its IT security vulnerabilities overall, with no disruption or impact on performance
Azul, the only company 100% focused on Java, recently announced that Newcastle City Council (NCC) has successfully implemented Azul Platform Core to address critical security vulnerabilities in its Java-based applications. This strategic move has significantly enhanced the council’s cybersecurity posture, remediating more than 80% of its IT vulnerabilities overall, with no disruption to its essential municipal services or impact on performance.
NCC provides municipal services to over 300,000 residents of Newcastle, the largest city in northeast England. Critical applications such as financial management, housing and benefits run on Java version 8.
Changes to Oracle Java Licence and Pricing Left Council Exposed to Security Risk
In 2019, Oracle changed how it licensed and priced licensing and support for Java 8 and, as a result, NCC lost access to free quarterly security patches. Committed to the highest standards of security, NCC conducts annual security audits. When these audits began flagging the Java runtime (JDK) as a major concern – accounting for more than 80% of the organisation’s IT security vulnerabilities – the council knew it needed commercial support to access security patches for its older versions of Java. It also needed to be able to address the vulnerabilities without disrupting its essential Java-based business applications and systems used daily by approximately 1,100 employees.
Full Support of Java Application Estate and Critical Patch Updates
NCC explored several options to address the need for more secure Java applications, including migrating away from Java completely. However, this move would have launched a year-long, prohibitively expensive process, creating unacceptable downtime for the government body. It also looked at moving to a free distribution of OpenJDK, but it needed full support for its Java estate to ensure security and stability.
After exploring these options, the council turned to Azul Platform Core, an OpenJDK-based alternative to Oracle Java. With Azul, NCC received a one-for-one equivalent to a commercial support subscription from Oracle, including Critical Patch Updates (CPUs) that allowed IT to immediately deploy security fixes in production.
Because Azul supports more Java versions and platforms than any other vendor (including Java 6 and 7), the council could continue to safely use its older versions of Java without needing to upgrade to newer releases. This transition also fortified the security of its Java environment across 5,000 desktops, and ensured that its systems remained robust, efficient and compliant with the U.K.’s Public Services Network (PSN) requirements.
“Through our strategic partnership with Azul, we significantly reduced our security risk level with our Java applications and Java-based infrastructure, which certainly helps me sleep better at night,” said Jenny Nelson, the council’s head of ICT & Digital. “In addition, the benefits of switching to Azul Platform Core as our JVM are clear. Our Java estate is now consistent, standardised, easier to maintain, and has brought a level of simplicity that’s a huge benefit to our organisation.”
The council rolled out Azul Platform Core to over 1,000 employees with no impact on performance and no complaints from service users. The rollout achieved the council’s business objective: a fully supported and secure Java application estate.
“We are proud to support Newcastle City Council in its mission to secure critical municipal services by helping to eliminate over 80% of NCC’s IT security risks,” said James Johnston, vice president of EMEA at Azul. “The council’s successful implementation of Azul Platform Core is a testament to our unwavering commitment to help customers maintain the integrity and performance of their critical Java applications, while advancing their overall security posture and without impacting service levels or performance.”
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