Case Study: Newcastle City Council achieves 80%+ reduction in Java security vulnerabilities with Azul Systems' Azul Platform Core

Newcastle City Council Mitigates the Security Risks of Java Versions no Longer Supported by Oracle

Newcastle City Council (NCC), which runs critical financial, housing and benefits applications for over 300,000 residents, faced a major security challenge after Oracle changed Java SE licensing and stopped free patches for older Java versions. Annual security audits found the Java runtime accounted for more than 80% of the council’s IT security vulnerabilities, and NCC needed an affordable, supported alternative to avoid a costly, disruptive migration. The council engaged Azul and its Azul Platform Core product to address the issue.

Azul implemented Azul Platform Core as a one-for-one OpenJDK replacement for Oracle Java SE, supplying Critical Patch Updates, support for legacy Java versions (including Java 6 and 7), and workarounds for applets and Java Web Start. Azul’s engineers assisted with the transition and the council rolled the solution out to roughly 1,000 employees and 5,000 desktops with no performance impact or service complaints. The deployment eliminated more than 80% of Java-related vulnerabilities and restored a fully supported, PSN-compliant Java application estate.

Newcastle City Council

Jenny Nelson

Head of ICT & Digital