Azul has published a new whitepaper warning organisations that running Oracle Java in production without a paid subscription carries serious financial and compliance risks.

The whitepaper, titled “Oracle Java Uncovered: What Free Java Users Need to Know Now,” comes as 73% of organisations report having been audited in the past three years.

Under Oracle’s Java SE Universal Subscription model, licensing costs are calculated based on total employee count, regardless of actual Java usage across the organisation.

A single unlicensed instance can trigger a demand to license the entire organisation, often accompanied by multi-year back-usage fees charged at list price.

That exposure extends beyond current employees, with audits potentially requiring organisations to license every contractor and part-time worker in addition to full-time staff.

The whitepaper outlines four paths forward for organisations currently running Oracle Java without a paid license, giving decision-makers a structured framework for evaluating their options.

Azul also cautions that switching to unsupported OpenJDK is not a straightforward fix, as it may not protect against back-usage fees tied to historical downloads of Oracle Java.

Unsupported OpenJDK also introduces its own risks, including patch stability concerns and regulatory exposure under compliance frameworks such as PCI-DSS 4.0 and DORA.

For organisations considering migration, Azul notes that OpenJDK is fully interchangeable with Oracle Java and requires no code changes or re-architecture to implement.

Commercially supported OpenJDK providers offer migration methodology, automated tooling, and expertise designed to reduce the time and resources required for transition.

Azul describes itself as the trusted leader in enterprise Java for the AI and cloud-first world, with its platform powering mission-critical systems for 36% of the Fortune 100.

The company also counts 50% of the Forbes Top Ten World’s Most Valuable Brands and the world’s top 10 financial trading companies among its customers.

The full whitepaper is available for download at azul.com/oracle-java-uncovered for organisations seeking to assess their current exposure and evaluate next steps.