Compare the solutions

5 minutes

We described the most typical deployment types for Java applications. Let's now see which Azure service can work best, depending on the deployment type you need.

Azure Container Apps

Azure Container Apps enables you to focus on building containerized Java applications, whether monolithic or microservices, without the need to manage infrastructure. You can deploy JARs, WARs, or even source code, and the platform automatically optimizes memory and scales your applications based on demand. It also integrates advanced diagnostic features for JVM troubleshooting, ensuring efficient performance for your Java apps.

Also, Azure Container Apps supports managed Spring components like Spring Cloud Service Registry and Spring Cloud Config Server, providing seamless Spring integration. As part of the Azure ecosystem, it can handle enterprise workloads with cost-effective scaling and sophisticated memory management, making it ideal for both traditional and modern application architectures.

Azure App Service

Azure App Service is a platform as a service (PaaS) solution provided by Azure. It offers an easy-to-use service for running Java Web applications with automatic OS and Java Virtual Machine (JVM) updates and patches, as well as autoscaling or monitoring.

App Service can run any executable JAR file, which makes it an alternative to Azure Container Apps for running simple Java monolithic applications.

It can also deploy any WAR application on top of popular application servers such as Apache Tomcat or Red Hat JBoss. This ability makes it the best solution for running Jakarta EE applications on Azure.

Azure Functions

Azure Functions is the serverless platform provided by Azure, and it supports running Java workloads.

Running a Java application on Azure Functions usually requires some minor configuration and setup. By their nature, serverless functions have short lives (typically a few minutes), so some of the services that you'd traditionally use might not be as efficient or practical as Azure App Service.

As a result, Azure Functions is tailored for applications that need a large amount of scalability. You can stop them regularly to reduce cost, and you can scale them up to respond to high loads.

Azure Kubernetes Service

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a managed and secured Kubernetes solution provided by Azure. It can run any Docker image, and it benefits from belonging to the whole Kubernetes ecosystem. AKS works well if you want to deliver cloud-native applications in any language, including Java.

Azure Kubernetes Service is a great solution if you have heterogenous workloads or if you want precise control over your environment. AKS runs Java workloads well, but you need to build and maintain your Docker images.

Azure VMs

Running VMs on Azure gives you the greatest flexibility and variety of options. You can choose between multiple operating systems, typically Windows and the main Linux distributions. You can bring your own software or use some of the provided images.

For Java specifically, you mainly use VMs to:

Install and run a Java web application manually on top of Windows or Linux.
Install and run Docker or even AKS to run an image that contains a Java web application.
Use one of the supported offers, such as Oracle WebLogic, to run Java web applications on your VMs.