Releasing Software at Factor House: Our Java Compatibility and Evolution Strategy

At Factor House, delivering reliable software is at the heart of everything we do. A key aspect of this commitment lies in our approach to managing Java compatibility.

Our suite of products works seamlessly across a range of JVM versions—from Java 8 to Java 17 and beyond. We balance supporting large enterprises still demanding Java 8 releases while staying ahead with JVM advancements, such as catering to customers requiring Graviton builds for deployments targetting ARM.

This blog post outlines our current release process and future plans for evolving Java support, including our approach to deprecating older versions in a way that respects the needs of diverse customer bases.

Our Current Java Release Strategy

We release our software in two primary formats: as JAR files and through Docker containers. Here’s an overview of our compatibility and deployment practices:

JAR Releases

• Java 8: Supported for customers who rely on legacy environments.
• Java 11: A modern, stable release offering long-term support (LTS).
• Java 17: Our recommended LTS version for customers, ensuring compatibility with newer environments and features.

Docker Releases

• We use Amazon Corretto 17 as the base image for our Dockerfiles.
• Our Docker images include the Java 17 JAR by default.

Compatibility Matrix

Java JARs

JAR VersionSupported Java VersionsNotesJava 8Java 8Legacy support, phased-out over timeJava 11Java 11, Java 17Suitable for many modern deploymentsJava 17Java 17+Recommended for most customers

Docker Releases

Deployment TypeBase ImageJAR VersionNotesDockerAmazon Corretto 17Java 17Future-proof, stable LTSHelm ChartsAmazon Corretto 17Java 17Future-proof, stable LTS

Our Commitment to Compatibility

1. Backward Compatibility: We understand that some customers operate in environments requiring older Java versions. That’s why we’ve maintained Java 8 and Java 11 compatibility in addition to Java 17.
2. Future-Ready: We’re committed to adopting more recent LTS versions of Java as they become available, ensuring our software leverages the latest performance and security improvements.
3. Transition Planning: While we currently support Java 8, we recognize its end-of-life status in many contexts. As part of our roadmap, we plan to phase out Java 8 support gradually, allowing customers ample time to transition to newer versions.

Moving Closer to Java's LTS Release Cycle

Moving forward, Factor House will align more closely with Java's LTS release cycle. For instance, LTS GA support for Java 25 commences in September 2025, and we plan to:

• Transition our JAR compilation targets and base Docker images to the new LTS versions as they are released.
• Phase out older versions in alignment with Java's premier support timelines.

This strategy will enable us to provide customers with timely access to the latest Java features and optimizations while maintaining a predictable and transparent deprecation schedule.

Looking Ahead

Docker Image Evolution

Over time, our base Docker image will evolve to reflect newer LTS Java versions. For instance, as future LTS releases like Java 21, Java 25, or beyond become widely adopted, we’ll:

• Transition to the new LTS version as our default base image.
• Update our JAR compilation targets to align with the latest versions.

Phasing Out Java 8

• We will work closely with customers still using Java 8 to support their migration efforts.
• A detailed timeline for deprecating Java 8 will be communicated well in advance to ensure a smooth transition.

Why This Matters

Adopting this strategy ensures that:

• Our software is secure, leveraging the latest Java features and updates.
• Customers have flexibility, whether they’re operating legacy systems or embracing modern environments.
• Factor House remains future-focused, delivering cutting-edge solutions without compromising reliability.

Conclusion

At Factor House, we’re committed to balancing innovation with stability. By supporting multiple Java versions and planning for future transitions, we ensure that our customers can deploy our software confidently, no matter their infrastructure. Stay tuned for updates as we continue to evolve our Java release strategy and roadmap.

Have questions or need guidance on transitioning to a newer Java version? Reach out to our support team—we’re here to help!

Updates to Container Specifics (DockerHub and Helm Charts)

As part of our 94.1 release we have seen some big, sweeping changes streamlining our deployment pipeline. Key improvements in this space include cleaning up of artifact names and solidifying our strategy around Java version compatibility and evolution. Along with these major improvements we have also poured some love into our base Dockerfiles for Kpow and Flex.

These changes ensure that our products are more ergonomic for our end-users to consume. Read on to learn more about our container improvements!

New AWS Marketplace ECR co-ordinates

For users purchasing Kpow for Apache Kafka on the AWS Marketplace, the location of our Hourly and Annual products has been updated:

For Kpow for Apache Kafka (Hourly) the new coordinates are:

• Docker container - 709825985650.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/factor-house/kpow-hourly

For Kpow for Apache Kafka (Annual) the new coordinates are:

• Docker container - 709825985650.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/factor-house/kpow-annual
• Helm chart - 709825985650.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/factor-house/kpow-annual-chart

New DockerHub co-ordinates

We are excited to announce a significant improvement in our DockerHub management strategy, aimed at enhancing clarity and streamlining your experience with Factor House products.

Introducing Our New Docker Image Structure

Previously, we offered separate Docker images for different Kpow editions:

• factorhouse/kpow-ee - (Enterprise edition)
• factorhouse/kpow-se - (Standard edition)

We have now collapsed both kpow-se and kpow-ee into a single DockerHub image found at factorhouse/kpow.

By consolidating our Docker images, we aim to eliminate confusion and streamline the deployment process for all customers. A single image will cater to every license type, ensuring clarity and ease of use in your experience with Factor House products.

The community edition still remains available at factorhouse/kpow-ce and factorhouse/flex-ce.

New Helm Charts co-ordinates and Charts!

Welcome to Our Expanded Ecosystem

We have transitioned from the previous Charts repository kpow/kpow to a new, centralized location under the Factor House banner. This change aligns with our rebranding and underscores our status as a multi-product company dedicated to providing best-in-class tools and services.

Streamlined Helm Chart Management

To access our updated Helm Charts, please update and use the following repository:

helm repo add factorhouse https://charts.factorhouse.iohelm repo update

Key Highlights of Our New Offering

Flex Helm Charts

1. We are excited to introduce Helm charts for Flex, our Apache Flink product!
2. Installation usage:

helm install --namespace factorhouse --create-namespace flex factorhouse/flex \
  --set env.LICENSE_ID="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001" \
  --set env.LICENSE_CODE="FLEX_CREDIT" \
  --set env.LICENSEE="Factor House\, Inc." \
  --set env.LICENSE_EXPIRY="2022-01-01" \
  --set env.LICENSE_SIGNATURE="638......A51" \
  --set env.FLINK_REST_URL="http://flink-dev.svc"

More detailed installation instructions can be found at our GitHub repository.

Community Edition (CE) Helm Charts

We are excited to introduce community Helm charts for our products! This has been a much requested feature from our growing community userbase:

Install Kpow Community Edition with ease:

/

helm install my-kpow-ce factorhouse/kpow-ce

Experience the power of Flex Community, now available as a Helm chart:

helm install my-flex-ce factorhouse/flex-ce

Enhanced Availability

1. All Helm Charts are open source and hosted on GitHub at factorhouse/helm-charts.
2. They are also listed on ArtifactHub, ensuring discoverability and ease of use.
3. For AWS Marketplace users, our Amazon-specific charts can now be found under the Factor House organization.

Amazon Corretto 17 as the default base image

Starting with 94.1 the base image for our products is Amazon Coretto 17. For almost all customers will be a completely transparent change.

As part of this clean up, we have dropped a few tags:

• alpine tag - we dropped the alpine tag so that we could focus solely on supporting amazonlinux as our base. We aim to support a single, stable long-term support distro as the base for our DockerFiles. Customers can still create their own custom DockerFile targeting alpine with our products.
• java17tag - now the default base image, previously Java11.

Changes to DockerFile specifics

New entrypoint location

We have changed the entrypoint from /opt/operatr to /opt/factorhouse.

Note: for some customers this might be a breaking change if you use our provided Dockerfile as a base image and reference our old ENTRYPOINT anywhere.

New default JAVA_OPTS

We have added extra flags to our JAVA_OPTS:

--add-opens=java.xml/com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.dom=ALL-UNNAMED
--add-opens=java.xml/com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp=ALL-UNNAMED
--add-opens=java.xml/com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util=ALL-UNNAMED

These are required to run our products with Java 17+. One of our external dependencies requires internal XML processing classes (from Xerces) and JDK 17+ enforces stricter module boundaries, blocking reflective access to internal APIs by default.

Note: if you set custom JAVA_OPTS when using our Dockerfiles, you will need to update your opts to include these additional flags.

A final goodbye to io.operatr

2025 is a pivotal moment at Factor House (formally Operatr.IO). We've announced our fundraise and have much more to announce about our roadmap this year. This is why we think that now is the perfect time to do a bit of spring cleaning and retire the io.operatr artifacts for good.

One of the hallmarks of Factor House has always been our unwavering commitment to backwards compatibility, ensuring that our customers can seamlessly transition between versions without disruptions to their configurations, deployments, or workflows. While this has been a source of pride for us, sometimes we take this mantra to the extreme. While our product has been named Kpow and our company Factor House for some years now, we were still publishing our Docker images to the old operatr/kpow DockerHub repository.

This blog post outlines our plan to retire the io.operatr artifacts and provides repository details on where to find your new Factor House goodies!

Documenting the Changes: A Transparent Approach

To make this transition smooth for everyone involved, we want to be as transparent as possible about the changes we’re making. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the updates across our key repositories:

DockerHub

As mentioned earlier, any new updates to Kpow will only be published to the factorhouse/kpow repo:

To read more about our container changes please see this blog post.

Helm Charts

Our Helm Charts are now multi-product! New releases will be pushed to the https://charts.factorhouse.io repository or the factorhouse ArtifactHub repo.

To read more about our container changes please see this blog post.

Maven

We are updating all Maven projects to reflect the Factor House name and branding. This includes updating POM files and repository URLs to ensure compatibility with our latest releases.

That means all Factor House open source will be deployed to the io.factorhouse Maven central namespace.

Clojars

Our Clojure libraries will be deprecated under the io.operatr namespace and replaced with new packages under the updated namespace:

Looking Ahead: A Bright Future for Factor House

This is not just about retiring old artifacts — it’s about celebrating a new chapter in our journey. As we grow and evolve, we’re committed to maintaining the level of excellence that has made us a trusted partner for businesses around the world.

The decision to retire io.operatr isn’t a goodbye to our past but rather a hello to a future filled with endless possibilities. We’re excited to continue building innovative solutions under the Factor House banner, delivering the same reliability and forward-thinking approach our customers have come to expect.

As we move forward, we’ll be sharing more updates about our roadmap and new offerings. Stay tuned for an even brighter year ahead!

Our Commitment to Engineers: No Forced Upgrades, No Breaking Changes

With our latest funding announcement and the upcoming launch of the Factor Platform, we know some of our existing customers might be wondering: What does this mean for Kpow and Flex? Will we be forced to upgrade? Will prices suddenly spike?

Let’s clear that up now: Kpow and Flex are here to stay. No forced upgrades to platform, no breaking changes, no artificial roadblocks. Engineers trust us because we build tools that work for them, not against them—and that will never change. Period.

The Factor House Philosophy: Build, Don’t Break

Some companies in our space have taken a different approach; adding new products and forcing customers to move to them or making sudden, dramatic price changes. That’s not how we operate. We believe software engineers deserve better.

If you’re using Kpow or Flex today, you’ll continue to have full access, support, and ongoing updates into the foreseeable future. We don’t make breaking changes. We don’t sunset products just because a new one exists. We’ll always act in the best interests of engineers while continuing to build enterprise solutions that support your evolving needs.

Why Build a Platform, Then?

If Kpow and Flex will still be supported, you might be wondering: Why introduce a platform at all? The answer is simple: while our individual tools solve specific challenges, Factor Platform is designed to solve the bigger picture.

Factor Platform isn’t a replacement - it’s a step up for those who need it. Here’s what it will offer:

• Centralized Management: Kpow, Flex, and all future tools in one place - streamlined and and enterprise scale. A single Web UI and API for data in motion at your organization.
• Control and Automation: Factor Platform is completely dynamically configurable via the UI and API, no more restarts when your RBAC configuration changes.
• Insights and Empowerment: Engineers exist in the space between Kafka, Flink, and other systems. That's where the data lives. That's where Factor Platform thrives.

What’s Next?

We love our customers. Great news if you're operating in the real-time space, we love your customers too.

We think Kpow and Flex are the right tools for most engineering teams today - we're going to sell a lot more licenses.

If you’re happily using Kpow or Flex already, you can keep using them as always. If you’re looking for a way to scale, simplify, and centralize your real-time data tools, Factor Platform will be there when you need it.

This isn’t about locking anyone in - it’s about giving engineers more options, not fewer. That’s a philosophy we’ll always stand by.

Join the Conversation

We know engineers value transparency, and we want to keep the conversation open. If you have thoughts, questions, or feedback, we’d love to hear from you. Your insights shape the tools we build, and we’re committed to making sure they continue to serve your needs.

Factor Platform is on the horizon, and we’re excited to share more soon. If you’d like an early look, reach out - we’d love to show you what’s coming.

• Tell us what you need in a unified platform for streaming data and we'll let you know when Factor Platform is ready for early access.
• Read more about our $5M seed round and where we go from here.

Announcing our $5M Seed Round, led by Blackbird.

We are thrilled to announce that Factor House has closed a $5M seed round to accelerate the commercial release of our new product, the Factor Platform.

Led by Blackbird Ventures, with OIF Ventures, Flying Fox Ventures, LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund, and Steve and Michelle Holmes as investment partners, this round brings our five-year journey as a bootstrapped startup to a happy conclusion and points to a bright future ahead!

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps

We founded Factor House with a simple yet ambitious goal: to empower engineers with the tools they need to build real-time systems with confidence.

Many startups chase funding to find product-market fit, we took a different path - bootstrapping, building, listening to engineers, iterating, and delivering products that have our users at heart. That approach allowed us to grow organically and cement our place as a trusted name in real-time data management.

We have been fortunate through five years of bootstrapping to pass fellow travellers who could share support, advice, or a shoulder to cry on. It was Ben Slater, Instaclustr’s then Chief Product Officer, who told us how hard it is to find your first customers, and then pointed us in the right direction. Just as importantly, the engineering teams at Block, Airwallex, and Pepperstone pushed us to refine early versions of Kpow, ensuring it met the needs of world-class teams operating at scale.

So why change tactic and close a funding round? Learnings from our users show that the opportunity in front of us is huge, and we're determined to build a balanced business that can not only ship great products, but speak clearly and authoritatively about the future of real-time engineering.

Real-time data is business critical

From FinTech and eCommerce to logistics and cybersecurity, industries everywhere are waking up to the reality that real-time data isn’t a luxury - it’s a necessity. Customers expect instant transactions, predictive analytics, and seamless digital experiences. Businesses that fail to embrace real-time processing will inevitably fall behind those that move faster and make smarter decisions.

Factor House has been at the forefront of this shift, providing engineers with intuitive tools that make real-time data management effortless. Kpow, our flagship toolkit for Apache Kafka, has become an essential part of the stack for enterprises managing complex data flows. But as demand grows, so does the need to innovate.

What's Next for Factor House?

With this investment, we’re focused on three key areas:

Expanding Product Capabilities

We will invest in Kpow and Flex, our flagship products. Engineers always need more; they need more profound insights, intelligent automation, and ever more fine-grained control of underlying systems. We’re investing in our existing products to continue to bring clarity and confidence to engineers working with real-time data.

Growing our Global Reach

Our products are used by engineers in over a hundred countries. Growing our team and expanding our ability to communicate as well as ship products will ensure more companies can access enterprise-ready solutions that scale with their needs.

Building the Future with Factor Platform

Factor Platform combines features of each of our tools with extended functionality to provide clarity, control, and governance of real-time data at enterprise scale.

Our composable system architecture provides centralized management of every Kafka and Flink cluster in an organization from a single Web UI, and allows service integration via a secure OpenAPI 3.1 REST API.

We can't wait to open early access to existing customers and start iterating on their feedback.

A Future Without FUD, Where Engineers Lead the Way

Factor House has always been, and will always be, built for engineers first. For our existing customers, nothing changes (read more about our commitment to engineers).

While many enterprise software companies focus on selling to executives or satisfying aggressive growth targets at the expense of their customers, we stay true to the practitioners - those working directly with data daily - ensuring they have the best tools available.

As real-time data becomes the foundation of modern business, the need for intuitive, scalable, high-performance tooling will only grow. Factor House isn’t just responding to that trend; we’re helping shape the future of how real-time data is managed, understood, and leveraged.

The journey from bootstrap to industry leader has been a remarkable one, and lots of fun, but the most exciting chapters are still ahead.

Stay tuned; the best is yet to come!

Our Commitment to Product Accessibility

Our mission at Factor House is to empower engineers with developer tools that are not only powerful and efficient but also inclusive and accessible.

We first published a VPAT in the release notes of Kpow for Apache Kafka v92.4 and you can find a VPAT available to download in every release of Kpow since.

Today, we are pleased to announce that we are extending that commitment to all future releases of Flex for Apache Flink and Factor Platform (currently in beta).

What is a VPAT and Why Does It Matter?

A Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is a comprehensive document that evaluates how accessible a product is according to established accessibility standards.

For organisations evaluating products built by Factor House, a VPAT provides crucial information on whether a product can be used by people with accessibility needs and what we need to change so that it is.

Publishing a VPAT for each of our products demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that our tools can be effectively used by all developers. It also solidifies our position as a leader in developer tools, offering our customers the confidence that Kpow, Flex, and Factor Platform meet the highest standards of accessibility.

Some concrete improvements to both product and process at Factor House through our commitment to web accessibility:

Screen Reader Compatibility

Factor House products are fully compatible with screen readers, allowing users with visual impairments to navigate and interact with our software effectively.

Keyboard Shortcuts

We implement ARIA Authoring Practices Guide (APG) patterns to deliver accessible elements. All Factor House UI widgets (such as buttons, menu buttons and dropdowns etc) implement the ARIA spec for keyboard interactions, roles, states and properties.

WCAG 2.1 AA Compliance

We’ve aligned our products with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standards, ensuring that we meet the highest industry benchmarks for accessibility.

External Audits

Our commitment to accessibility was validated through an external audit conducted by AccessibilityOZ, a leading expert in accessibility assessments. Their thorough evaluation helped us identify areas for improvement and guided our efforts to enhance Kpow’s accessibility features.

Published VPAT

We publish our compliance to accessibility guidelines in a publicly available VPAT available in every product release. This document provides a detailed analysis of how our products meet various accessibility standards, giving our customers transparency and confidence in our product’s accessibility capabilities.

The Journey to VPAT Certification

The process of publishing a VPAT was rigorous and required significant enhancements to our products. There were four major steps that we had to undertake:

1. Our team had to become experts in WAI-ARIA standards to get each product to the point where we could submit to a VPAT audit.
2. We had to retrofit a large, complex, production-grade Web UI to one that achieved compliance with WCAG accessibility guidelines. It was hard, it was worth it, and if we are honest with ourselves it should have been something we had included from the start.
3. We adopted frontend libraries built with accessibility in mind, such as HeadlessUI and Echarts. Having such core components of our product ship with great accessibility standards built into their libraries certainly helps our team, and is a testament to the broader developer community.
4. We engaged an external consultant and auditor, AccessibilityOZ, who iterated with us to create the best, most accessible, outcome.

What Comes Next?

A commitment to publish a VPAT for each product release is a significant milestone, but it is by no means the end of the journey.

Accessibility is a constantly evolving field, and we are committed to staying at the forefront of best practices and emerging standards. We will continue to refine and improve our products, ensuring that they remain accessible to all users.

At Factor House, empowerment is a core value that drives our company and product development. The successful completion of our VPAT certification is a testament to our dedication to this value, and we are determined to continue in our role as a leader in developer tooling.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to our customers, partners, and team members who have supported us on this journey. Together, we are making technology more inclusive and empowering every developer to achieve their full potential with Kpow.