Java services firm Azul has announced rapid channel expansion, and is looking for more partners.
It is expanding its global channel programme in response to year-over-year growth in partner engagement and revenue contribution. The growth is due in large part to the demand for licensing and pricing expertise aligned to IT asset management services, and specific migration advisory engagements, as customers seek alternatives to Oracle Java.
Azul’s channel partners contributed 44% of the company’s new and upsell bookings for the first half of its fiscal year 2025, and were responsible for a 50% increase in inbound opportunities.
In the last year, Azul’s channel expansion gained traction globally with 15 new strategic partnerships, including “key” distributors in Australia, the Middle East, South Africa and India, said the firm. Azul also expanded its own presence in Paris to oversee partnerships in France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
This past year, said the provider, has been “pivotal” in the Java licensing market, due to a surge in businesses seeking “cost-effective and flexible” alternatives to Oracle Java SE. “Customers have turned to independent channel partners” to provide Oracle Java discovery and inventory services, license analysis and recommendations for “alternatives”, it added, such as Azul Platform Core.
“The shift away from Oracle Java is driven by escalating licensing fees, unpredictable cost structures and greater demand for open-source solutions,” maintained Azul. Enterprises across industries are prioritising cost containment, vendor independence and long-term support, making OpenJDK-based offerings a “compelling choice”, it added.
By partnering with Azul, channel resellers and distributors can tap into the “strong momentum” behind the use of OpenJDK distributions and offer customers Java solutions that meet their performance, scalability and compliance needs. Azul’s channel partners, it said, can benefit from “strong margins” from Java application and infrastructure security managed services.
As it eyes further expansion of the channel programme, Azul expects to quadruple the number of currently certified sales professionals, migration advisory and delivery partners, and partner engineers to meet demand.
“Going forward, we’re focused on bringing migration partners into our own service engagements as well as collaborating with partners early in their advisory license engagements to provide pivotal recommendations, all through a more aggressive channel-centric sales model,” said Simon Taylor, vice president of global channel sales at Azul.
“Typically, it takes up to five years to convert from a direct to channel approach. We’ve done this in two years because we recognised that resellers are keen to expand their differentiation into high value service revenue streams due to pressure on traditional license margins. We are building an ecosystem that delivers exceptional value to Java users worldwide,” Taylor said.
Azul’s updated channel programme is targeting a 60% revenue contribution from partners in its full fiscal 2025.
