Today we are happy to announce the general availability of first-class support for Apache Tomcat and Java SE platform applications on Azure App Service. Every software engineering team faces unique challenges in their development processes. Azure App Service is a solution for teams to build, deploy, and scale their Windows or Linux applications without maintaining the underlying operating system or web servers. Today, we are announcing the general availability of support for Tomcat and Java SE applications on App Service for Linux. You can simply bring your Java project and deploy to either Tomcat or your favorite Java SE platform, such as Spring. In either scenario, your team can leverage deployment through Maven or your favorite IDE, continuous integration and deployment through Jenkins, and multiple scaling options though the underlying App Service plan. See the Java developer guide for details.

What is App Service?

For any Java developers who are unfamiliar, App Service is Azure’s platform for development teams who want to focus on developing their application without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. Azure provides this service for both Windows and Linux operating systems. Teams that choose App Service can use a full suite of development tools such as web-based SSH, authentication plugins, performance monitoring, deployment services, and on-demand scaling. App Service offers built-in images that support applications written in ASP.NET Core, Node.js, PHP, and Ruby. With today’s announcement, we are now offering first-class support for Java SE.

Tomcat applications

App Service on Linux allows developers to quickly build, deploy, and scale their Tomcat web applications on a fully-managed service. Developers can deploy their application using Maven or plugins on their favorite IDEs like IntelliJ, Eclipse, or VS Code. Once deployed, developers can continuously integrate and deploy app updates, automatically scale their application, and leverage the full suite of Azure services such as Functions, Application Insights, Logic Apps, and Event Grid.

Java SE platform applications

As Tomcat remains an incumbent in enterprise web development, newer Java web frameworks have gained popularity, namely Spring, Play, and more. Much like the Tomcat service, developers can simply bring their code and deploy it using their favorite tools as mentioned earlier. For more information on the Java SE Platform on App Service, please see the developer guide.

Deploying a Spring-Boot application via Maven

Production support for Java developers

The landscape of the Java platform has changed dramatically in past years—especially for commercial support and production deployments. Azure has collaborated with Azul Systems to provide Azure customers with access to, and support for the Azul Zulu Enterprise builds of OpenJDK. Microsoft will initially support Java versions 7, 8, and 11 with newer versions available in the future. Azure customers can deploy their production apps and have access to all JDK bug fixes, enhancements, and security updates. Azure customers will also receive support for any JDK-related questions or issues.

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