My Dev Take: 7 Essential Reasons to Adopt Jakarta EE 11

In the ever-evolving world of software development, it's easy to get distracted by the next shiny object. But sometimes, the most significant advancements happen in the foundational technologies we rely on every day. That's exactly what's happening with Jakarta EE.

With Jakarta EE 11 on the horizon, I've heard the question bubble up in team chats and forums: Is it just an incremental update, or is it a big deal? From my perspective in the trenches, it's a monumental leap forward. If you're building serious, enterprise-grade applications, here are seven essential reasons why you should be planning your adoption of Jakarta EE 11 right now.

1. The Core Profile: Built for Modern Architectures

Let's be honest: the monolithic "full profile" of Java EE had a reputation for being heavy. Jakarta EE has been slimming down for years, but Jakarta EE 11 formalizes this with the introduction of the Core Profile. This isn't just a diet; it's a complete rethinking for the cloud-native era.

The Core Profile is a carefully selected subset of Jakarta EE specifications designed specifically for building microservices and smaller, focused runtimes. It includes the essentials you can't live without:

• Jakarta CDI (Lite)
• Jakarta RESTful Web Services
• Jakarta JSON Processing & Binding
• Jakarta Annotations

By targeting the Core Profile, you get significantly faster startup times, a smaller memory footprint, and a more focused developer experience without sacrificing the power of a standards-based platform. It's the perfect foundation for building resilient, scalable microservices that are a joy to work with.

2. Unleashing True Scalability with Virtual Threads

Project Loom and its virtual threads are arguably the most exciting things to happen to the Java platform in years. And Jakarta EE 11 is built to leverage them from the ground up. This is a game-changer for I/O-bound applications—which, let's face it, is most of what we build (think REST APIs, database calls, message queues).

Before, achieving high concurrency meant wrestling with complex, non-blocking, asynchronous code using `CompletableFuture` or reactive frameworks. It worked, but it was hard to write, harder to debug, and introduced a significant mental overhead.

With virtual threads integrated into Jakarta EE 11, you can write simple, sequential, blocking-style code that is incredibly scalable. The container and the JVM handle the magic of running millions of these "virtual" threads on a small number of OS threads. This means your code is easier to read and maintain, and your application can handle a massive number of concurrent requests with minimal resource consumption. It's the best of both worlds.

3. CDI Gets a Supercharge for Faster Builds

Contexts and Dependency Injection (CDI) is the beating heart of Jakarta EE. In version 11, it gets a major performance boost by embracing the concept of build-compatible extensions, embodied in CDI Lite.

Historically, CDI did its magic—dependency scanning, proxy creation, and wiring—at runtime. While powerful, this added to application startup time. CDI Lite, which is the foundation of the Core Profile, shifts much of this work to compile time.

This means your application starts faster because the dependency graph is already resolved. It's a key enabler for creating native images with GraalVM, leading to near-instantaneous startup and incredibly low memory usage. Don't worry, the powerful dynamic features of CDI Full are still there for when you need them in the Web Profile or Full Platform.

CDI Lite vs. CDI Full: A Quick Comparison

4. A Standard, Fluent REST Client (Finally!)

For years, every project has had to make a choice: use the JAX-RS client, which felt a bit dated, or pull in a third-party library like Feign, OkHttp's client, or the Java 11 HTTP Client. This led to inconsistency and extra dependencies.

Jakarta EE 11 introduces a new, standardized, and fluent Jakarta REST Client. This brings the best ideas from the community into the standard, providing a modern, type-safe way to define and consume remote REST APIs. Think of it as an official, vendor-neutral version of MicroProfile Rest Client.

Imagine defining a client with just an interface:

@Path("/users")
@RegisterRestClient(baseUri="https://api.example.com")
public interface UserClient {

    @GET
    @Path("/{id}")
    User findById(@PathParam("id") String id);

    @POST
    Response createUser(User user);
}

You can then simply `@Inject` this `UserClient` into your services and use it. The implementation is generated for you by the Jakarta EE runtime. This drastically simplifies your codebase, reduces boilerplate, and makes inter-service communication clean and maintainable.

5. Modernized and Simplified Data Access

Working with data is fundamental, but JDBC has always been notoriously verbose. While JPA helps immensely, there's still room for improvement, especially for simpler use cases. Jakarta EE 11 continues the trend of modernization here with specifications like Jakarta Data.

Jakarta Data (a prospective spec but its principles are influencing EE 11) aims to bring the repository pattern, popularized by frameworks like Spring Data, into the standard. This means defining a data access layer can be as simple as writing an interface:

@Repository
public interface ProductRepository extends BasicRepository<Product, Long> {

    // Find products by name, sorted by price descending
    List<Product> findByNameOrderByPriceDesc(String name);

    // Custom query for more complex cases
    @Query("SELECT p FROM Product p WHERE p.inventoryCount < ?1")
    Stream<Product> findLowStockProducts(int threshold);
}

The goal is to eliminate boilerplate DAO/Repository implementation code for common CRUD operations, allowing you to focus on your business logic. This pattern is powerful, intuitive, and a huge productivity booster.

6. Long-Term Support and Enterprise-Grade Stability

Innovation is exciting, but for enterprise applications, stability is paramount. Jakarta EE 11 is not just a collection of new features; it's a stable, long-term support (LTS) target. By adopting it, you're building on a platform that will be supported by multiple vendors for years to come.

This means predictable release cycles, security patches, and a reliable foundation you can trust for your mission-critical systems. The Jakarta EE Specification Process (JESP) ensures that every feature is well-vetted, reviewed by industry experts, and proven with compatible implementations. This isn't a fast-moving, potentially breaking open-source library; it's a robust standard built for the long haul.

7. More Than a Spec: A Vibrant, Vendor-Neutral Ecosystem

Finally, adopting Jakarta EE means you're not locking yourself into a single vendor. You are buying into a thriving ecosystem. The specifications are developed under the vendor-neutral governance of the Eclipse Foundation, with contributions from a diverse group including IBM, Red Hat, Oracle, Payara, and Fujitsu.

This gives you the freedom to choose the runtime that best fits your needs:

• Open Liberty: Known for its speed, zero-migration architecture, and dev mode.
• WildFly: A powerful and mature application server from the JBoss community.
• Payara: Built for production Jakarta EE, with aggressive support and cloud-native features.
• GlassFish: The original reference implementation, continuing its journey.

This competition and collaboration drive innovation and ensure that you always have options. You can pick the best tool for the job without being tied to a proprietary stack.

The Takeaway

Jakarta EE 11 is far more than an incremental update. It's a thoughtful and powerful response to the demands of modern application development. By embracing virtual threads, a lean Core Profile, and developer-friendly APIs, it solidifies its position as a top-tier choice for building robust, scalable, and maintainable enterprise Java applications. It’s time to start experimenting and planning your upgrade.