Azul appoints Aquion as new ANZ distributor to lower Java costs

Aquion has been appointed as a new distributor for Azul in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). This partnership will facilitate the availability of Azul's solutions, addressing the recent changes in Oracle’s Java pricing structure and rising cloud costs. These solutions aim to lower Java software licensing costs, reduce cloud computing expenses, and enhance both application performance and developer productivity.

Through inclusion in Azul’s PartnerConnect Program, Aquion will now have the capacity to recruit and empower Azul partners to increase their revenue by delivering value-added solutions to mutual customers. This collaboration is set to assist regional value-added resellers and provide ANZ organisations with a reliable and cost-effective alternative to Oracle Java SE.

Reflecting on the partnership, Azul's Vice President of Asia Pacific, Dean Vaughan, remarked, "Azul is pleased to partner with Aquion to broaden our distribution and deepen our commitment across the valuable ANZ region. It’s timely as we are currently experiencing our highest volume of channel partner opportunity registrations ever. This is driven by enterprises desperately searching for more cost-efficient Java runtime alternatives to their current provider."

Simon Taylor, Vice President of Global Channel Partners at Azul, added, "Based on my previous experience working with Aquion, I believe they are a perfect fit for the type of business development and distribution scale Azul needs in the ANZ region, and I expect Aquion will be able to bring many new partner relationships to Azul through their extensive ANZ network."

Aquion's role will involve aligning Azul's solutions with specific partners, go-to-market strategies, and service models, ensuring that organisations across various industries in ANZ have access to these solutions and the necessary support for their Java-based decision-making processes. This comes at a period when many organisations are grappling with the increasing costs of Java software.

The 2023 State of Java Survey & Report, commissioned by Azul, highlighted the extent of concern regarding Oracle's pricing model. It found that 82% of respondents are worried about Oracle's new policy, which bases charges on the number of employees, including contractors and agents, rather than the number of machines or users. This change has led to increased costs for many organisations, with some experiencing cost hikes between two to twelve times.

Azul offers a stable, secure, and compatible Java runtime at approximately 70% less cost than Oracle, providing an attractive option for businesses looking to reduce their Java licensing and support expenses. In particular, Azul's flagship product, Azul Platform Prime, aims to significantly enhance Java application performance, latency, and operational consistency, while optimising infrastructure and reducing cloud costs by up to 20%.

Additionally, Azul Intelligence Cloud offers actionable insights from Java runtime data, boosting developer productivity. This includes two key services: Azul Vulnerability Detection, which eliminates false positives by accurately identifying and prioritising known security vulnerabilities, and Code Inventory, which helps identify unused and dead code by detailing custom and third-party code usage.

Audrey Lyon, Head of Strategic Business Development at Aquion, acknowledged the importance of the partnership, stating, "This valuable partnership with Azul could not have been more opportune because of the growing concerns of the costs of operating a digital enterprise today. With Java underpinning so much of an organisation's digital services, by providing stable, trusted, and proven Java solutions we help enable Australian and New Zealand organisations to realise their digitalisation goals and create business impact through innovation."