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 Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Modernization Decisions: Migrate, Rewrite, Or Replace A 40-Year-Old Assembler Application?

by Phil Murphy, October 2, 2009

Client inquiries asking Forrester for help in making application modernization decisions have spiked in recent months, spurred on by firms' need to make the most of the applications they already own while jettisoning applications that no longer effectively . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

TechRadar™ For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals: Cloud Computing, Q3 2009

As Much Diversity Of Maturity Across Categories As Confusion Among Them

by James Staten, October 2, 2009

The No. 1 challenge in cloud computing today is determining what it really is. What categories of services exist within the definition and business model, and how ready are these options for enterprise consumption? Forrester defines cloud computing as . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

What Semantic Technology Means To Application Development Professionals

Semantic Technology Is Now Ready For Increased But Focused Use

by Dave West, October 2, 2009

Semantic technology has been incubating for the past 10 years, but most application development professionals view it with skepticism or outright distrust, believing that the dream of semantic technology is impractical in a time of stretched budgets and . . .

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 Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

The Four Decision Factors For Open Source Enterprise Content Management

by Stephen Powers, August 5, 2009

Open source enterprise content management (ECM) initiatives are common in small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) or in department-level projects. Yet information and knowledge management (I&KM) professionals in major enterprises have started to . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

European Airline Aims To Delight Passengers Through RFID Bag Tracking

Event-Driven Solution Lowers Costs While Promoting Happy Travelers

by Mike Gilpin, July 15, 2009

Processing lost bags costs airlines a lot of money: more than $1,200 per thousand passengers, not to mention the inconvenience to passengers. Thus, airlines are highly motivated to apply new technology to solving this problem. Through an innovative combination . . .

For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

Open Source eCommerce Solutions: Truths And Myths

Is Using An Open Source eCommerce Platform Solution Right For Your Business?

by Brian K. Walker, July 14, 2009

Open source eCommerce solutions are gaining the attention of eCommerce business and technology leaders, who are curious about their viability and applicability to their business needs. While open source offers many potential benefits, Forrester uncovered . . .

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 Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Selecting A Comprehensive Integration Solution  (1.6 MB PPT)

by Ken Vollmer, July 7, 2009

This presentation discusses the factors that should be considered when choosing a comprehensive integration solution. Refer to the recent Forrester document entitled "Create An Enterprise Integration Strategy To Lower Your Costs" for additional information . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Open Source IT Management Tools

Cost Is Not The Only Differentiator

by Evelyn Hubbert, May 26, 2009

With shrinking IT budgets and a continued need to control IT environments, the use of open source solutions to manage infrastructure and operations is no longer just an interesting experience but a viable alternative for enterprises of all sizes. The . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Operational Intelligence Builds On Event Processing  (1.7 MB PPT)

by Ken Vollmer, April 21, 2009

This workbook discusses the impact of event processing capability on real-time operational intelligence. Tools are beginning to appear that provide this capability, and this can have a significant impact on the level of business agility that an enterprise . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Behind "Cloud" Is Your Future Application Environment: Ultra Modular Computing

Shift Cloud Excitement To Your Own Data Centers

by Charles Brett, Jeffrey S. Hammond, April 6, 2009

Cloud computing is all the rage, but its greatest benefit may be to teach IT organizations how to build flexible and cost-efficient private data centers. The technical foundations of cloud computing — commodity hardware, virtualization, elastic workload . . .

For B2B Market Research Professionals

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Adoption By Firm Size  (574 KB PPT)

by Ellen Daley, April 3, 2009

Enterprises and SMBs report on their usage and satisfaction of service-oriented architecture (SOA).

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 Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Best Practices: Improve Development Effectiveness Through Strategic Adoption Of Open Source

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, February 2, 2009

Open source software (OSS) is getting renewed attention from application development professionals who are looking for cost-saving alternatives amid the economic recession. But many aren't asking the right question: Instead of "should we adopt OSS?" they . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Case Study: Reliant Security Innovates With Open Source Software

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, February 2, 2009

Retailers that want to accept credit cards need to demonstrate that their systems are Payment-Card-Industry- (PCI-) compliant. The problem is that implementing PCI compliance can be expensive, and retailers really don't get much additional revenue from . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Latest BI Adoption Trends In Enterprises: Bright Future, But Off To A Slow Start  (446 KB PPT)

by Boris Evelson, January 12, 2009

Our latest data shows that enterprises are slowly but surely beginning to adopt the newest BI features like open source, end-user self-service, and search-BI convergence.

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Lean Software Is Agile, Fit-To-Purpose, And Efficient

by John R. Rymer, Dave West, Mike Gilpin, December 12, 2008

Bloat kills. Whether it's excessive complexity in the application, its underlying platform or architecture, or the process used to deliver it, overloaded platform software and heavy processes impede delivery of the solutions the business demands. Yet . . .

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 Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Complex Event Processing In A Quant World

A Case Study Illustrating The Practicalities Of Introducing CEP

by Charles Brett, August 25, 2008

Robert Almgren is a co-founder of Quantitative Brokers, a company that is extending the reach of complex event processing (CEP) from its conventional uses in the equity sector into non-equity trading. Before founding this startup, Dr. Almgren was head . . .

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 Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Global Banking Platform Deals 2007: Regions And Functionality

Some Cool Regions Are Heating Up

by Jost Hoppermann, July 18, 2008

Forrester surveyed 15 vendors of globally deployed banking platforms on their 2007 deals. What is the outcome of the regional and functional analysis? Asia Pacific has overtaken Europe in the global banking platform race, with the Middle East, North America, . . .