Microsoft has deepened its commitment to Java, announcing that it has officially joined the Java Community Process (JCP) programme — the mechanism for overseeing collaboration on development of Java technologies.

The move was disclosed on Microsoft’s Java blog, where Java Engineering Principal Program Manager Group Bruno Borges revealed that the software giant has signed the Java Specification Participation Agreement (JSPA) to officially join the Java Community Process.

Participation in the JCP is a significant milestone in Microsoft’s journey within the Java ecosystem, Borges wrote, adding that the firm looks forward to “working on behalf of our customers and teams in collaborating with partners, Java vendors, Java User Groups and individuals. These are the passionate contributors making the future of Java and keeping it innovative.”

The move was welcomed by Bruno Souza, President of the SouJava User Group, an Executive Committee Member of the JCP.

“Microsoft has been an important part of this community, with their involvement in OpenJDK but also supporting Java User Groups and community events. Because of all that, Microsoft has become a strong partner of SouJava and we are excited to have them go even deeper on their commitment with the Java community,” Souza said in a prepared statement.

One of the reasons for Microsoft’s deepening involvement in Java is the extent to which the firm relies on Java technologies for many of its own internal operations. The software giant now has more than 500,000 JVMs in production, running hundreds of internal Microsoft systems. In addition, there are many customers and developers running Java on Microsoft Azure and GitHub, so the firm believes that joining the JCP is a natural step forward in helping shape the future of the Java Platform.

Earlier this year, Microsoft released its own build of OpenJDK, the open-source implementation of the Java Platform, and said this would become the default distribution across Azure-managed services as well as Microsoft’s own internal JVMs.

This week saw the release of the latest Microsoft Build of OpenJDK updates covering the Long-Term Supported (LTS) versions which are OpenJDK 11 and OpenJDK 17. Microsoft said that developers should update their systems and workloads to OpenJDK 17.0.1 and OpenJDK 11.0.13. These versions will soon be rolled out to Azure services where Microsoft manages the JDK on behalf of the customers, such as Azure App Service, Azure Functions, and Azure Spring Cloud.