Optimizing Cloud Native Java • Ben Evans & Holly Cummins • GOTO 2025

This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club. #GOTOcon #GOTObookclub
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Read the full transcription of the interview here:
gotopia.tech/episodes/363

Ben Evans - Senior Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat & Co-Author of "Optimizing Cloud Native Java" and many more Books
Holly Cummins - Senior Principal Software Engineer on the Red Hat Quarkus Team ‪@Holly_Cummins‬

RESOURCES
Ben
mastodon.social/@kittylyst
github.com/kittylyst
twitter.com/kittylyst
www.linkedin.com/in/kittylyst
www.kittylyst.com/

Holly
hollycummins.com/
hollycummins.com/type/blog
bsky.app/profile/hollycummins.com
hachyderm.io/@holly_cummins
twitter.com/holly_cummins
github.com/holly-cummins
linkedin.com/in/holly-k-cummins

Links
   • The Efficiency Paradox: How to Save Yourse...  
   • Cloud Chaos & Microservices Mayhem • Holly...  
   • Java's Hidden Gems: Tools & Libraries • Jo...  
   • Maximizing Java Application Performance wi...  
   • An Introduction to JVM Performance • Rafae...  
   • Java, How Fast Can You Parse 1 Billion Row...  
   • Visualizing Performance - The Developers’ ...  
   • Modern Java in Action • Nicolai Parlog • G...  
   • Designing for Performance • Martin Thompso...  
   • What Is This OpenTelemetry Thing? • Martin...  
   • 97 Things Every Java Prog. Should Know • T...  
   • Cruising Along with Java • Venkat Subraman...  
   • Observability 2.0: Transforming Logging & ...  
   • Containers From Scratch • Liz Rice • GOTO ...  
   • Cloud Native Application Protection Platfo...  
   • Structured Concurrency in Java: The What &...  
   • Java In The Cloud with GraalVM • Alina Yur...  
   • Lambdas in Java: A Peek Under the Hood • B...  

DESCRIPTION
Holly Cummins talks with Ben Evans about his latest book "Optimizing Cloud Native Java", which updates his previous work "Optimizing Java" to reflect the realities of cloud native environments.

Ben explains that performance engineering is not just technical but also psychological, emphasizing the importance of user expectations and defining clear performance goals. They discuss how modern Java performance must account for cloud native architectures, with applications running across distributed microservices and containerized, single-core environments.

The book focuses on the importance of measuring relevant data, warns against relying on misleading micro-benchmarks, and highlights how system-level benchmarks offer a clearer picture. Ben also delves into the JVM's hidden complexities, such as changes in Java 17 and the impact of virtual threads. Practical, real-world examples in the book, like the "fighting animals" microservices application, help developers learn how to optimize Java performance in real network environments.

Finally, Ben touches on the future of Java concurrency, with virtual threads and structured concurrency offering new ways to handle performance challenges in cloud native systems.

TIMECODES
00:00 Intro
07:40 Who's "Optimizing Cloud Native Java" for?
09:29 Performance tuning: Art & science
21:43 Java performance
32:21 Concurrency in modern Java
39:10 Outro

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Ben Evans & Jim Gough • Optimizing Cloud Native Java • amzn.to/41nivD9
Ben Evans, Jason Clark & David Flanagan • Java in a Nutshell • amzn.to/43FDoMA
Ben Evans, Martijn Verburg & Jason Clark • The Well-Grounded Java Developer • amzn.to/41JMG7N
Ben Evans, Jim Gough & Chris Newland • Optimizing Java • amzn.to/4bNOfGh
Ben Evans & Martijn Verburg • The Well-Grounded Java Developer • amzn.to/4hs9MWk
Goetz, Peierls, Bloch, Bowbeer, Holmes & Lea • Java Concurrency in Practice • amzn.to/4215zo6
Venkat Subramaniam • Cruising Along with Java • amzn.to/4dFuBwU
Monica Beckwith • JVM Performance Engineering • amzn.to/3BkRoiO

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