Java Development Trends at DevNexus 2020

The annual DevNexus convention is a must-visit event for Java development professionals in the United States — and DevNexus 2020 was no exception. JRebel was proud to help sponsor the this year's event, and sent a small team to the event to talk with attendees about our Java products. In this article, we share our experiences at the event, including the biggest topics being discussed, key takeaways from the event, and our votes for best booth swag. (Update: check out our Java Trends to Watch in 2022 blog for even more Java predictions.) 

About DevNexus 2020

DevNexus 2020 took place in Atlanta, GA, on February 19th-22nd and featured keynotes from Burr Sutter, Kait Parker, Ixchel Ruiz, and Jessica Pointing. While the event featured talks on a diverse range of topics, many focused on architectural and infrastructural concepts and their accompanying technologies for Java developers.

What is DevNexus?

Founded in 2008, DevNexus is the largest annual Java conference in the United States. DevNexus is organized by Java champions Vincent Mayers, Pratik Patel, and other Java evangelists from around the world. 

What Were the Major Development Trends Being Discussed at DevNexus 2020?

Microservices and containerization. Every development organization is trying to streamline their development process and making the architecture switch seems to be the best option to do so. However, the drawback is how complicated and time-consuming it is to make a full transition. These conferences are a great place for developers to get a better idea of that process and the possible solutions to the problems they are facing.

Spencer Bos, Sales Engineer at JRebel

Microservices was the one I heard mentioned most often. Most people that I talked to were either planning to move, thinking about moving to, or actively working in microservices.

Michael Katz, Account Executive at JRebel

The biggest thing I heard discussed by far was microservices. It makes sense, considering how big of a trend microservices are in Java right now, and how many people are transitioning away from the monolith.

Austin Rush, Sales Development Representative at JRebel

What Were Your Key Takeaways From DevNexus 2020?

A lot of people are working in microservices! Many of the people I spoke with were actively looking for better insight into their microservices transactions, and were actively trying to improve performance during development. It was exciting to tell them 

Michael Katz, Account Executive at JRebel

Lots of people were talking about cloud-based architectures, Kubernetes, changes to the JVM, and how to improve DevOps. It was interesting to see such a big focus on cloud-based architectures and DevOps, especially in how they relate to the reality of developing Java microservices applications.

Spencer Bos, Sales Engineer at JRebel

Almost every single person that we talked to was a developer/senior developer/developer manager, and all were working at least part time in Java. Every single person we started having an a actual conversation with was concerned about the performance/speed of their code, and it almost seemed as if companies had sent their developers there specifically to potentially find new tools.

Austin Rush, Sales Development Representative at JRebel

What Was the Best Piece of Booth Swag?

Honestly? Our wooden cube puzzles were awesome. I'm still playing with mine!

Michael Katz, Account Executive at JRebel

Our cube puzzles were a huge hit, but I also saw some nice hats and beanies at other booths.

Austin Rush, Sales Development Representative at JRebel

This is going to sound super biased, but I honestly felt that JRebel had the best booth swag. A tee shirt or pen is old news, but our cube puzzle was fresh and different and people really seemed keen on wanting it.

Spencer Bos, Sales Engineer at JRebel

Additional Resources

Want to learn more about the trends that ruled DevNexus 2020? Read more about microservices, how they're used in Java applications, and the key things development teams need to consider in our Java microservices hub.

Visit The Microservices Hub