Plans to Deploy Business Process Automation Functionality Will Drive Application

Integration Server Markets in 2004, IDC Says

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Tuesday, December 23, 2003; 12:00 AM

22 Dec 2003- FRAMINGHAM, Mass., December 22, 2003 - According to a recently completed IDC telephone survey of over 750 IT managers in North America, 17% of respondents are currently using their 'freestanding', application/integration server software to automate business processes. IDC believes this trend will drive application/integration server software market growth in 2004 as an additional 14% of respondents indicated similar plans to begin next year.

"This new survey data illustrates an acceptance of the value proposition for 'freestanding' application/integration servers, as compared to bundling the functionality into packaged applications and other software. It also reveals opportunities for suppliers of freestanding servers to 'make' separate markets in the face of the movement to converge application/integration server functionality," says Dennis Byron, vice president of IDC's Business Process Automation and Deployment Software research.

Based on the survey's findings, IDC also believes open-source and other non-traditional suppliers, such as packaged enterprise application providers, will get an increasing share of the overall application/integration server software market. Byron adds, "Where some users think of the application server in a packaged application as free, this data shows unexpected growth in the open-source movement as it relates to the application/integration server market. This is another meaning of 'free' that suppliers need to take into consideration."

IDC forecasts the worldwide application/integration server software market to grow 5% in 2004 compared to 2003, but notes that growth is very dependent on market health in North America, where the survey was conducted.

IDC believes that the worldwide application and integration server platform software markets will reach nearly $5 billion combined by 2007. Major market drivers through 2007 include:

The continuing dominance of heterogeneous compute environments
The move towards fuller application deployment suites due to the ongoing complexity of implementing multiple classic point-to-point middleware products.
The need for industry-specific, role-based, and/or size-of-target-organization business process automation functionality
IDC's recently released studies Application/Integration Server Software Platforms: User Status and Plans, 2003-2004 (IDC #30560) and Business Process Automation Deployment Software: User Status and Plans, 2003-2004 (IDC #30547) contain initial results from IDC's 2003 Application Deployment Software Study which surveyed over 750 IT departments in North America. The survey explored IT management's opinions and plans regarding the use of application and integration server software in their organizations.

To purchase these documents, call IDC's sales hotline at 508-988-7988 or email sales@idc.com.

Additional analysis by industry and other stratification criteria as well as key findings from this extensive research will be covered in an upcoming briefing at IDC's Mountain View, CA office on February 19, 2004. Please contact Reagen Brown at rbrown@idc.com for more information on the briefing.

Contact more For more information, contact: Dennis Byron dbyron@idc.com 508-935-4022