Will Google Replace Java For Enterprise Development?

You remember Larry Ellison going on national television accusing Google to have copied a software for Oracle? Ellison thinks Oracle’s Java programming language was copied by Android of Google. In an ultimate come-back, Google has created a language referred to as Golang or simply Go. This programming language is said to be able to replace Java as an enterprise coding language. However, Java development is still going to persist as many businesses trust the language.

Java Programming Language

Some 20 years ago, Java came into existence having been developed by Sun Microsystems and since then, it has been the preferred language for enterprise applications. Many businesses love building their apps using Java. Some developers, however, haven’t been impressed since Oracle took control of Java in 2010 after purchasing Sun. The developers feel that Oracle doesn’t work fast to bring out fresh Java development tools. Having been written over two decades ago, Java became successful because it was superior to C and C++.

Being object-oriented, the programming language resonated with the needs of enterprises and that’s why they quickly adopted it. The relevancy of Java, however, reduced over the years.

Go Programming Language

Google’s Go programming language also known as Golang is a lightweight language that has plenty of fresh approaches. As businesses move away from the traditional server-side dev apps, Go may become the next big thing. When it comes to high traffic websites usage, Go takes a higher market than Java. The programming language is quickly establishing itself and is among the languages that are easy to implement.

Enterprises are finding a Java alternative that they can rely on in the modern competitive business environment. Go is filling the gaps that Java has created over the years. Developers are now finding Go as the go-to language they can use to create basically complicated as well as scalable apps.

Although we cannot underestimate the power of Java considering that it has served enterprises for over two decades, Go is a notch-higher since it is being used in high profile projects that are known to drive innovations throughout the world.

While Go programming language may be making strides in serving the modern enterprise environment, Java development company teams have their spot because there are those enterprises that will want to use Java as their prime programming language.

Iron.io Uses Golang Programming Language

For the side of Google’s Go, it didn’t get much attention from developers until an internet startup Iron.io used the language profoundly. Iron.io provides messaging cloud services serving app developers, which means that it has a service that helps apps to talk to one another. The startup has been built using Go programming language, the brainchild of Google.

Iron.io has many customers including Motley Fool and Career Builder. The cofounders of Iron.io feel that Go has a living proof since it has already been used by startups, which are serving big companies. Trust has been built on it as an alternative programming language to popular languages such as Ruby, and most particularly, Java.

Besides, the famous containerization platform known as Docket has been built on Go language.

Java vs. Go

Google’s Go programming platform offers relevancy in today’s enterprise coding market. Java is an established language boasting of years of service to the enterprise environment, however, lately it has been struggling to pace up with the emerging enterprise processes and dynamics.

Go is crisp and has been written to meet the demands of today’s web applications. In 2018, Stack Overflow Survey indicated that Golang was placed number 13 of the most outstanding programming languages and number 5 on the languages touted to be the most loved, dreaded as well as most wanted by enterprises and developers.

The inability of Java to remain at par with emerging technologies such as the cloud tries to give Go an edge over Java. The architecture of Go if principally designed to work well with cloud-based apps, which acts as a catalyst in helping people build websites in the modern times.

Go doesn’t offer virtual machine like Java, however, it is still taking a large chunk of the previously Java’s developers to share. Among the reason for developers preferring Go is that it offers mobile support for Android and iOS in addition to other Java development service tools.

Java vs. Go: Features

In memory management, Go is able to compile directly on the device code and execute instantly resulting in an efficient memory management in a machine. On the other hand, Java requires a virtual machine in order to compile. The language applies both compilation and interpretation. After the bytecode has been interpreted within the Java virtual machine, machine code is generated that the system executes. The management of memory in Java is performed by the virtual machine.

In terms of threads, Java has much simpler threads making it difficult for some apps to run it independently. People still like Java because it offers models that are simple and easy in comprehending. The models perform greatly in mapping to different cores. However, users of Go are I fear of the coroutines and channels. They add a layer of complexity to the language.

In regard to loads, Java has simple threads, which makes it seem less complex and easy to grasp when compared to the coroutines in Golang. However, there is some hidden aspect here. Every hit moving from a server to a website requires Java thread which makes it heavy and cumbersome. On the flip side, Google’s Go may have co-routines, however, they are so lightweight yet flexible. It is more sophisticated and connected with synchronization queues known as channels.

Wrap Up

Java has been engineered as a core-based language, it’s more mature and understands many of the enterprise problems of the real world. Go, on the other side, takes a modern approach in its design with multi-thread programming that allows it to tackle current enterprise challenges. The Go vs. Java battle may drill down to the individual enterprise needs for app and web development. It’s no doubt that Go is capable of handling current hurdles that enterprises face in their development projects with its innovative and fresh ways of coding.

However, for enterprises that would want to seek rapid prototyping, Go may not perform so well, which means they would want to stick with enterprise Java development teams for their app and software development needs. That being said, the TIOBE index of 2018 tanked Go the 12th most popular language, it may take over Java language as a cloud-based enterprise web and app development language. Looking at the two languages, they have their spot in the app development market.