Oracle unveils GraalOS for serverless Java

Oracle has introduced GraalOS, a high-performance serverless Java-based application deployment technology that promises to help developers improve application responsiveness and cut costs.

GraalOS uses GraalVM Native Image technology to compile Java code to a standalone executable, leveraging x64 and AArch 64 processors on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Applications powered by GraalOS should require significantly less memory, thanks to Native Image ahead-of-time compilation, and be less expensive to operate, Oracle said.

GraalOS applications are automatically suspended and resumed when called, with no idle cost. The ability to suspend and rapidly resume idle applications also means no cold start cost, according to Oracle. The company said the first application of GraalOS will be in providing functions to benefit OCI Functions users. A full application deployment platform for GraalOS is planned for 2024.

GraalOS runs native Linux executables directly, leveraging advances in hardware-enforced application isolation. This mode eliminates the need to package an application into a container, removing challenges such as selecting a secure container image and ensuring the latest security patches are in place and updated regularly. Also, stateful and stateless microservices and functions are supported.

In a related move, Oracle on September 19 announced availability of Oracle GraalVM for JDK (Java Development Kit) 21, supporting Java 21 features such as virtual threads and improvements in Native Image performance. JDK 21 was released on September 19.

Accessible from Oracle’s website, GraalVM serves as a high-performance JDK to speed up performance of Java and JVM-based applications and simplifies Java cloud native services. Polyglot application support, for passing values among languages, also is supported.