Case Study · Retail · Migration

An entire Java estate, now Oracle-free.

A retail chain migrated every Java workload — point-of-sale, back office, and head office — to OpenJDK across 800+ store systems, with no downtime and no Oracle Java cost.

Not an Oracle partner or reseller
100% buyer-side advisory
Money-back audit defence guarantee
340+ Java engagements
100%
Migrated to OpenJDK
800+
Store systems moved
0 hrs
Of trading downtime
$0
Oracle Java cost
Retail operations dashboard on a screen
The challenge

Paying Oracle for software that already worked.

The chain ran Oracle Java on point-of-sale terminals, in-store back-office servers, and head-office applications. As Oracle's Java SE Subscription pricing moved to the employee metric, the projected cost of simply keeping Oracle Java — on software that already worked perfectly well — became hard to defend.

The chain wanted out of Oracle Java entirely. The hard requirement was that nothing could interrupt trading: a point-of-sale system that fails at a checkout is a lost sale and a frustrated customer.

Our approach

How we migrated without a single lost sale.

1

Inventory every Java workload

We catalogued Java across point-of-sale, store back-office, and head-office systems, recording version and dependency for each.

2

Verify OpenJDK compatibility

Each workload was tested against a supported OpenJDK build to confirm it was a clean, drop-in replacement.

3

Pilot in live stores

We migrated a small group of representative stores first, proving the approach under real trading conditions before any wide rollout.

4

Roll out store by store

The remaining 800+ systems were migrated in controlled waves, scheduled around trading hours so no checkout was ever affected.

5

Decommission Oracle Java

With every workload on OpenJDK, Oracle Java was removed estate-wide and the subscription requirement disappeared.

The outcome

Oracle-free, with no lost trading.

The entire estate now runs on OpenJDK. The chain holds no Oracle Java SE Subscription and has no exposure to the employee metric or to future Oracle Java price rises.

The migration was completed without a single hour of trading downtime. Point-of-sale, back office, and head office all run exactly as before — just without an Oracle licence attached.

Result

Oracle-free

The whole Java estate runs on OpenJDK, with no Oracle subscription.

Continuity

No downtime

800+ store systems migrated without interrupting trading.

Savings

Cost removed

The Oracle Java SE Subscription cost is gone, and the employee metric no longer applies.

“Our checkouts never noticed. The only visible change was the Oracle line item disappearing from the budget.”
Director of Retail Technology
National retail chain

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