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 Application Development & Program Management Professionals

With "11g," Oracle Steps Out Of IBM's Middleware Shadow

New Release Will Also Blast Past SAP NetWeaver And Challenge Microsoft

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, John R. Rymer, August 19, 2009

The latest release of Oracle Fusion Middleware, dubbed "11g," establishes Oracle as the innovator among Java platform vendors. The first modules of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g — the core Java application server, development tools, service-oriented architecture . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

IBM's Bid For Sun Is About More Than Just Solaris And Java

Sun's Innovations Can Improve IBM's Prospects Outside Enterprise Markets

by Frank E. Gillett, March 24, 2009

Vendor strategists are calling Forrester asking what we make of the possibility of IBM buying Sun Microsystems. The conventional wisdom is that IBM wants to capture the Solaris/SPARC customer base to boost the AIX/Power business and own Java to protect . . .

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 Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Oracle Absorbs BEA's Middleware: The Impact On Application Development Managers

You Won't Be Forced To Migrate Or Upgrade, But Many Shops Will Want To

by John R. Rymer, Mike Gilpin, July 30, 2008

The best news in Oracle's plan to absorb BEA Systems' middleware products: No forced upgrades and/or migrations for nine years. At the same time, Oracle disclosed plans for a rationalization of Oracle and BEA middleware to create new platforms by combining . . .

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 Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Application Server Quality: Review Your Assumptions

by John R. Rymer, Jeffrey S. Hammond, April 25, 2008

Which application server has the fewest critical bugs? Is easiest to configure? Has the best quality overall? These questions play a key role in application development professionals' evaluations of their options for existing and future applications. . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

An Oracle-BEA Combo: How It Will Affect You

by John R. Rymer, Mike Gilpin, October 16, 2007

By acquiring BEA Software's wealth of large corporate customers and well-respected middleware products, Oracle would be second only to IBM in that key market. Oracle's Larry Ellison has long threatened to acquire BEA Systems, finally making an offer on . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

SAP Is A Strong Performer But Lags Behind The Pack In Application Server Platforms

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by John R. Rymer, July 11, 2007

After a strong showing in our 2004 evaluation, SAP disappointed in this year's Forrester Wave™ evaluation of application server platforms. SAP earned low scores across the board, emerging as a borderline Strong Performer. SAP simply moves more slowly . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Pegasystems Is A Strong Performer In Two Application Server Platform Scenarios

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by John R. Rymer, July 11, 2007

Pegasystems debuts in the Forrester Wave™ evaluation of application server platforms as a Strong Performer. Pegasystems represents a new breed of platform for composite application and SOA development, rooted in neither .NET nor Java/J2EE. Pega . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Microsoft Is A Leader In Application Server Platforms

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by John R. Rymer, July 11, 2007

Microsoft is a Leader in our evaluation of application server platforms, due to the strong and mature development, deployment, management, and interoperability features of its Windows Server platform, which is based on .NET. Microsoft isn't pushing advanced . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Sun Microsystems Is A Strong Performer In Application Server Platforms

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by John R. Rymer, July 11, 2007

What a difference 18 months makes. Sun Microsystems trailed the field in our 2004 evaluation of application server platforms and is a solid Strong Performer in this year's evaluation. Sun's platform grew substantially with its acquisition of SeeBeyond, . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

BEA Systems Is A Strong Performer In Application Server Platforms

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by John R. Rymer, July 11, 2007

BEA Systems is a veteran Java/J2EE platform vendor, having provided mission-critical Java/J2EE platforms to Verizon, Wells Fargo, and many other large organizations for years. BEA's current offering scores highlight the vendor's decision to partner for . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

IBM Is A Leader In Application Server Platforms — Except For Its High Costs

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by John R. Rymer, July 11, 2007

IBM's current offering scores in our evaluation of application server platforms are strong, reflecting the big portfolio of products included in IBM's platform. But IBM's strategy scores were held down by its high costs, the modest revenue growth that . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Magic Software Is A Strong Performer For SOA In Application Server Platforms

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by John R. Rymer, July 11, 2007

Magic Software, a company focused on midmarket companies and departments within large enterprises, showed that it has a strong platform for many Web and SOA applications. Magic's iBOLT Suite scored well in architecture, development, and deployment but . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Application Server Platforms, Q3 2007

Oracle, Microsoft, And IBM Are The Leaders; Pegasystems Surprises

by John R. Rymer, July 11, 2007

Forrester evaluated the major application server platform suites and vendors across 175 criteria and found that Oracle received the highest scores across all of the scenarios we evaluated, due to its wide range of features and strong strategy. Microsoft . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Red Hat/JBoss Has To Catch Up In Application Server Platforms

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by John R. Rymer, July 11, 2007

Red Hat's JBoss division's platform suite scored well in basic platform criteria in our evaluation of application server platforms, and its product costs are very attractive. But JBoss' rating suffered from its small number of development and management . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Oracle Is A Leader In Application Server Platforms

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by John R. Rymer, July 11, 2007

Oracle is a Leader across the board in our evaluation of application server platforms. This is the result of the broad range of development, deployment, and management features built into its Oracle Application Server and SOA Suite; its strong strategy; . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

What IT Sourcing Pros Need To Know About Multicore Software Pricing

Multicore Schemes Promote Confusion, Risk Adding Cost

by Julie Giera, John R. Rymer, November 1, 2006

Want to take advantage of new multicore servers to expand your capacity? Bring a pricing analyst and a stack of product catalogs with you when it comes time to buy the software you'll need. Each major vendor has its own formula for dealing with multicore . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Trends 2006-07: Application Server Platforms

Scaling Web Apps While Paving The Way For SOA

by John R. Rymer, October 4, 2006

The major application server platforms (ASPs) are evolving to address both requirements rooted in the past and new requirements for service-oriented applications. For today's needs, ASPs and their associated development and management tools must make . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

JBoss Application Server Is A Strong Leader In Open Source Projects

The Forrester Wave™ Project Summary, Q2 2006

by Michael Goulde, June 28, 2006

JBoss Application Server is one component of a broader JBoss strategy to provide a complete platform for a Java-based service-oriented architecture (SOA). The company is driving this strategy by using a hybrid mix of open source and commercial business . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Apache Geronimo Is A Strong Performer In Open Source Projects

The Forrester Wave™ Project Summary, Q2 2006

by Michael Goulde, June 28, 2006

Apache Geronimo achieved an important milestone at the beginning of 2006 when it shipped Release 1.0. The project leveraged other open source projects, including many other Apache Software Foundation technologies, to deliver this J2EE 1.4-compliant application . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Apache HTTP Server Is A Strong Leader In Open Source Projects

The Forrester Wave™ Project Summary, Q2 2006

by Michael Goulde, June 28, 2006

The Apache HTTP Server project was the one that gave birth to The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) and played a large role in the explosive growth of the Web. It is a mature project that pioneered many aspects of open source community development that . . .