diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index fabd5b2f..395b6ada 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ defaults:
 env:
   dataset: ci_test
   # NOTE: if any of these versions are changed, update the POM files too
-  java_version: 17
+  java_version: 21
   java_distribution: zulu
   groovy_version: 4.x
 
diff --git a/monitoring/pom.xml b/monitoring/pom.xml
index 058c6df8..01ca9462 100644
--- a/monitoring/pom.xml
+++ b/monitoring/pom.xml
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
         <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>3.13.0</version>
         <configuration>
-          <release>11</release>
+          <release>21</release>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index e42da242..f146477c 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -17,8 +17,7 @@
 
   <properties>
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
-    <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
-    <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
+    <release>21</release>
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>