Modernizing Java applications has always been a challenge. As a Java developer, I’ve faced the difficulties of upgrading legacy code—managing technical debt, dealing with dependency issues, and investing significant time to ensure a smooth transition. Moving from Java 8 to a newer version often felt like more trouble than it was worth.

Now, Amazon Q Developer makes this process much easier. This AI-powered tool automates the transformation of Java 8 applications to Java 21, significantly reducing the time and effort required. What used to take weeks can now be done quickly, allowing developers to focus on building new features instead of fixing old code.

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) is a fully managed Kubernetes service that enables you to run Kubernetes seamlessly in both AWS Cloud and on-premises data centers. Just a few days before AWS re:Invent 2024, a new, exciting feature was released - Amazon EKS Auto Mode. This feature gives you a possibility to have a fully functional EKS cluster in a matter of minutes, with all necessary components included. There are several methods of deploying an EKS cluster. You can find some of them in the documentation or in the launch blog, but today I will use another one - deploying with AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) in Java. You can use a similar approach if you use other programming languages with AWS CDK.