For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Market Momentum: Middleware Software Market, H2 2008 And H1 2009

Middleware Vendors Must Fight For Awareness In A Consolidating Market While Offering Cloud Innovations

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., October 27, 2009

Forrester's market momentum data includes mergers and acquisitions (M&A), product, partnership, and strategy/go-to-market announcements. A trend analysis provides vendors with important background for the ongoing market consolidation and various strategic . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

The Tier One Middleware Vendors

A SWOT Analysis Of The Leading Business Process Platform Vendors: IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, And SAP

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., September 4, 2009

The four largest traditional software vendors — IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP — compete around business process platform software. This broader software segment covers all the components that independent software vendors (ISVs) need to create a packaged . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Packaged Apps Versus Platforms For Custom Development: Which Ones Sell Better?

IT Spend Analysis 2009: The Right Focus For Software Vendors

by Holger Kisker, Ph.D., Stefan Ried, Ph.D., July 31, 2009

In times of economic challenge, IT budgets face the same pressures as other cost centers of a company. We thus analyzed the 2009 IT spending plans of 2,731 IT executives and technology decision-makers to identify any budget shift between different software . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Yet Another Cloud

Forrester's First Proposal Of A Cloud Taxonomy

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., July 30, 2009

Despite the current crisis, the demand for cloud computing is growing at enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Some customers consider virtual infrastructure in the Internet as cloud, while others deem their business applications delivered . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Software AG Acquires IDS Scheer To Finalize Its Five-Year Restructuring Plan

Software AG Will Pass The €1 Billion Revenue Mark Once It Closes The Deal

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., July 15, 2009

Software AG continues to stay the course on its five-year turnaround plan. After stabilizing its legacy application business — mostly by replacing its former integration offering with the webMethods technology stack it acquired in 2007 and successfully . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Platform-As-A-Service Market Sizing

A New $15-Billion-Plus Market Awaits Vendors

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., July 13, 2009

The increasing adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS) across the world requires software vendors to look for a more efficient way of deploying business applications on multitenant platforms. Because independent software vendors (ISVs) are starting to . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Clouds Appearing In The Sky Of Outsourcing

How Outsourcing Providers Can Turn Cloud Computing And SaaS From Threats Into Opportunities

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., May 13, 2009

While cloudy vendor marketing is creating customer confusion, cloud computing represents a powerful force that will change the IT services landscape. Public and private clouds in particular represent a new paradigm for provisioning enterprise IT infrastructure . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Oracle's Sun Acquisition Is A Game Changer

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., Holger Kisker, Ph.D., April 22, 2009

Oracle has pulled off a series of aggressive acquisitions over the past five years, establishing a comprehensive portfolio of packaged business apps and middleware infrastructure. The pending acquisition of Sun Microsystems not only complements Oracle's . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Is Open Source Software Confusing To CIOs?

Identifying The Most Urgent Communication Challenges For Vendors

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., March 16, 2009

The budget situation in many IT organizations today means that CIOs are paying more attention to the open source discussion than ever before. We created a fictitious discussion between two CIOs to identify the major concerns and even confusion about the . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Forrester's Platform-As-A-Service Reference Architecture

A Tool To Guide ISVs, Hosting Providers, And Middleware Vendors To A SaaS Future

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., February 20, 2009

Increasing customer demand for software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications has already convinced 50% of software vendors to deploy some of their business applications via SaaS. The approach is turning out to be a major technology challenge, as it re-opens . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

The Strategic Turnaround: Cordys Repositions To Verticals With An Indirect Sales Model

SWOT Analysis: Cordys, Q4 2008

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., January 30, 2009

Cordys is one of the few promising new entrants into the integration and process improvement middleware market; it was recently named a leader in the Forrester Wave™ of integration-centric business process management suites. While its technology . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Software Vendor Positioning Benchmark, Q4 2008

A Review Of Software Marketing Practices With A Self-Assessment Tool

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., December 23, 2008

A year after we first published it, Forrester's vendor positioning review (VPR) methodology has become a proven strategy tool; Forrester analysts have applied it in multiple advisory engagements, and marketing professionals actively leverage it as a self-assessment . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

Health Check For The Software Industry: Software Market Momentum, H1 2008

Is The Financial Crisis The Dawn Of A Technology Depression?

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., November 20, 2008

The financial crisis is hitting industries across the globe. As a result, the financial industry and other affected industries will clearly spend less on software licenses in 2009 in most regions. But, is this a technology depression comparable with the . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Integration Vendors: Make Your Q4 Goals

The German Market Indicates Potential For International Middleware Vendors

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., October 14, 2008

Forrester provides annual forecasts for IT market spending, including the software market for Europe and North America. As Germany is an important market for middleware and integration software, we reviewed our predictions for 2008 in more detail and . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Market Momentum: Middleware Software Market, H1 2008

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., September 16, 2008

The middleware software market continues to mature — from the bottom of the technology stack to the higher layers. A set of 15 representative vendors announced a healthy mix of new product innovations and the maintenance of existing products with successive . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Forrester's SaaS Maturity Model

Transforming Vendor Strategy While Managing Customer Expectations

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., August 14, 2008

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is the hottest trend in both CRM and the small and midsize business (SMB) market in general. While SaaS appears to be a threat to software vendors with traditional perpetual-license models, it is also an opportunity for competitive . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Internationalization: The Vendor Escape Hatch FromThe Economic Downturn

Best Practices And A Strategy Framework For Expanding Internationally

by Peter O'Neill, Stefan Ried, Ph.D., August 5, 2008

Many software vendors are facing difficult economic times and are evaluating the potential for growth beyond their traditional home markets. Expansion into new regions, especially emerging markets, sounds like a promising direction. Others know from the . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

To Share Or Not To Share IP: That Is The Question

Leveraging Intellectual Property: A Review Of Large Vendor Options

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., July 8, 2008

The tech industry has shifted to an ecosystem-based form of competition, featuring the emergence of extensive, interfirm structures like value networks and open source development communities. Competitive success, management energy, and financial rewards . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

SOA Governance Communities: Which One Should A Vendor Join?

An Overview Of The Vendor Communities That Enable SOA Interoperability

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., June 25, 2008

Communities among developers or customers that share a particular interest or use the same products are well known in the software industry. Some software vendors actually initiate communities to create more marketing momentum, incubate new standards, . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

The Vendor Positioning Review Self-Assessment Tool For Middleware Vendors  (239 KB XLS)

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., May 27, 2008

This vendor positioning review self-assessment tool gives you the opportunity to score your own vendor positioning and compare the results with the positioning of six leading middleware software vendors and their products, which have been evaluated with . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Middleware Vendor Positioning Benchmark, Q2 2008

A Review Of Middleware Marketing Practices With A Self-Assessment Tool

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., May 23, 2008

Forrester used its vendor positioning review (VPR) methodology to evaluate the positioning of six top middleware vendors across 14 criteria to determine where they are currently positioning themselves on the continuum between information technology (IT) . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Inquiry Insights: Tech Industry Strategy Inquiries Related To The IT Market Outlook For 2008

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., April 15, 2008

Forrester clients can ask Forrester analysts any question at any time. We track these questions by category and industry vertical. This is usually a good indicator of which industries are concerned with which technology trends or of any change in market . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Ajax Disappoints Power Users Looking For Web 2.0-Style Business Apps

Some Words Of Caution For Business Application Vendors Moving To Ajax

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., March 20, 2008

A great user experience is one of the most compelling and important characteristics of a modern business application. Thus, application vendors are under permanent pressure to offer new user interface (UI) technologies and introduce rich Internet applications . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Claiming Ground Against The ESB Gorillas

How Open Source Can Challenge The Established ESB Vendors

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., February 15, 2008

Many software vendors provide an enterprise service bus (ESB), one of the key pieces of infrastructure required for a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Now, the market is prepared for competition between commercial and open source license models. A . . .