What programming language is the best choice for your Fintech application? Our experience demonstrates that “THE best does not exist, but Java is one of the most suitable options.”
Java dominates work interviews; 90% of Fortune 500 companies use Java; Java reigns over the Finance industry; it is quite possible that one of your acquaintances learns Java; even your smart fridge most likely runs on Java. Java is everywhere and for a reason. This language is armed with everything required to create reliable and viable applications of all sorts and Fintech stuff in particular.
Why Java is so popular in Finance and Fintech software solutions? Well, because Java is…
1. Secure and Safe
Black Hat defines Java as a simple, portable, and robust language developed with security in mind. Simple and robust = a programmer needs to have special talent to “break” it and make software written in Java behave unpredictably.
This is why Java is so good for Fintech applications – it is safe and it has built-in features that make it difficult to cause certain security flaws. Those features are
1) Byte code. To run its programs, Java transforms code into bytecode, which is difficult to modify or attack.
2) Java Virtual Machine. Java executes its code within a specially designed sandbox (JVM) and not on a host computer. As a result, a computer cannot: receive damage to hardware, software, or information that a program may cause; pass unauthorized information to third parties; become unusable because of resource depletion.
3) No pointers. Unlike C or C++, Java does not use pointers, which can cause unauthorized access to information if other software receives values of the pointers.
4) Garbage collection. Transparent storage management, which helps to ensure the integrity of a program and avoid crashes due to improper freeing of memory.
5) Type safety. Java makes it impossible to perform an operation on objects that are not valid for these operations. The absence of type safety is often a source of many headaches in other languages.
2. Platform-independent
Java’s programs can run on different systems (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Ios), It makes Java an attractive option for entrepreneurs who want to go cross-platform and get to the widest audience possible with minimum investments.
However, it is important to remember that platform-independence is not absolute, which means that Java programs still require some tweaking under the hood to fit the peculiarities of different systems, but significantly less tweaking than programs written in other languages.
3. A Pivot of Big Data
Big Data disrupts Finance Industry. The creation of 2.5 quintillions of data and the necessity to efficiently analyze relevant information to be at the top of the industry makes Big Data an obligatory business tool.
At the same time, Java is a Pivot in the world of Big Data. Therefore, it is natural for a big chunk Financial industry to stick to Java to keep up with the pace of the progress and implement their own Big Data solutions.
4. A Mature Language
Java is a mature language that dominates various industries for 20 years. Java has a huge and active online community (sources claim there are 9.000.000 Java developers, but this information seems to be outdated; most likely this number is bigger). The legacy of the language is enormous. The Internet is full of solutions to common issues that may appear in the process of development as well as ready-to-use solutions to different tasks. It makes the process of learning Java and coding in Java smooth and straightforward as developers have always a “strong shoulder” to lean on.
The piece of mind that comes along with a language with a rich legacy and active community is an important aspect of developers’ confidence.