Ship Java apps that actually behave in production

Java deployment does not have to be a ritual sacrifice to the gods of inconsistency. Pick the right tools for each stage of the lifecycle and stop blaming the environment when the app works on your laptop and not on the cluster. This guide walks through sensible choices for build packaging containerization orchestration and delivery while keeping the tone mildly amused and technically correct.

What each tool is actually good for

Not every tool solves every problem. Here is a fast map so you can stop playing tool roulette.

• Maven and Gradle Manage dependencies build artifacts and run plugins. The basics are still mvn package and gradle build. Pick one and live with it like a responsible adult.
• Spring Boot Package apps as executable jars to simplify launch and cut down server config drama. Great for microservices and anyone who hates fiddly launch scripts.
• Docker Containerize apps so they behave the same on your machine and in production. Use minimal base images to shrink size and attack surface.
• Kubernetes Orchestrate containers with scaling health checks and rolling updates. Use it when you need resilient production scale and can tolerate a bit of YAML.
• CI systems Jenkins GitLab CI and GitHub Actions automate builds tests and deployments so humans do fewer repetitive mistakes.
• Infrastructure as code Terraform and Ansible make environments reproducible and auditable which is useful when you want to find out what changed last Tuesday.
• PaaS Heroku and Elastic Beanstalk remove ops overhead at the cost of platform constraints. Use them to move faster when the trade off is acceptable.
• GraalVM native images Compile ahead of time to native binaries when you need extreme startup speed and are willing to handle some build complexity.

Practical pipeline pattern that will not implode

Start simple and only add complexity when you actually need it. A sane path looks like this

• Choose one build tool for the team Maven or Gradle
• Produce a reproducible artifact with Spring Boot jar or a Docker image
• Automate testing and builds in CI CD with Jenkins GitLab CI or GitHub Actions
• Deploy to a single delivery target PaaS VM or container registry first
• Introduce Kubernetes or other orchestration only when load and complexity demand it

Short list of best practices

• Automate one clear path from commit to production and keep it small
• Standardize naming artifact coordinates and manifest layouts so people stop inventing synonyms for the same service
• Prefer minimal base images to reduce attack surface and image bloat
• Rely on readiness probes health checks and log aggregation to verify service health instead of hoping
• Keep build caches and dependency locks checked in or managed to avoid surprise builds

When to pick orchestration and when to procrastinate

If you have a handful of services and predictable scaling then a PaaS or simple container host will likely be fine. Move to Kubernetes when you need fine grained scaling service discovery and automated self healing at scale. Do not adopt Kubernetes as a hobby project unless you enjoy debugging networking day and night.

Tool choices that work together

Pairings that make your life easier

• Spring Boot with Maven or Gradle for easy packaging and reproducible startup
• Docker image builds in CI with caching to speed up pipelines
• CI CD pipelines in GitHub Actions or Jenkins that push images to a registry and trigger deployments
• Terraform for infra provisioning and Ansible for configuration when you need both idempotency and flexibility

Final survival tips

Automate deployments not by magic but by repeatable steps. Monitor logs traces and readiness probes before you message the team at 3am. Keep the deployment path short and auditable. Standardization and a little automation will prevent most incidents and reduce the number of messages that begin with my app works on my laptop.

If you want one piece of advice to tattoo on your forehead it is this Automate one deployment path from commit to production and keep it boring and predictable. The rest is plumbing.