What happened?
AWS has added a new major performance-improvement feature to Open Java Development Kit – JDK – through its version, called AWS Corretto, The new feature is the Amazon Corretto Crypto Provider.
What does this mean?
The feature is designed to speed up cryptographic functions in Java.
Why should we care?
Java is a slow language to run and uses a lot of compute power. And if your work is mathematically intensive, like crypto functions, it’s even slower. AWS has open sourced the code through GitHub for OpenJDK and OracleJDK 8, or newer. It even works with Linux for 64-bit x86 and the GitHub repo says that Arm 64-bit is coming “soon”.
Insights/comments on the subject from Liftr.
AWS opened its new crypto acceleration functions to all Java users. Note that Java is owned by Oracle and the two companies are actively antagonistic toward each other. So, while AWS opening Corretto Crypto Provider as a truly cross-platform feature looks like an altruistic act, it’s more like “embrace and extend” – a great way for AWS to steal Java attention (and maybe control, in the long term) from Oracle by evolving Java faster and in new directions.
