Middleware is gradually coming back from a few rough years, and it got some big help from Web services.
Application integration and middleware (AIM) includes software used to integrate, connect or run applications. Middleware includes application servers, portals, message-oriented middleware (MOM) and transaction processing systems. The market expanded to $6.7 billion in 2004, according to data from research company Gartner, and Web services is expected to help the AIM space grow 5.2 percent to $7 billion in 2005.
IBM continued its reign in the top slot for the AIM market worldwide, with a
37.2 percent market share on 2004 revenues of nearly $2.5 billion. Big
Blue’s closest competitors are BEA Systems and Fujitsu, at 7.2 percent and
6.3 percent, respectively. Oracle, Microsoft and others trail.
IBM’s dominance can be attributed to its WebSphere middleware line, which
includes application and business integration servers, portals and its CICS
Correia said AIM buyers fall into two camps. While historically the market has been about integrating existing systems, she said more corporations are looking
to build new ones.
This has opened new revenue opportunities for software lines that purport
application integration via distributed computing models like Web services
Microsoft’s .NET, SAP’s NetWeaver and Oracle’s 10g brands.
Web services are having an impact on the fortunes of certain products, the
analyst said. While the CICS and BEA’s Tuxedo e-commerce platforms are
legacy systems many experts believed to be on the decline, Correia said they
have enjoyed a resurgence after both companies updated them to run Web
services for distributed computing chores.
Web services won’t substitute for legacy integration issues, but they will
solve the ability for users to integrate as they build things going forward.
For that reason, Web services could impact legacy platforms, such as CICS and
Tuxedo, Correia said.
“We see Web services cutting the cost of integration almost in half by
2008,” she said. “Instead of $100 for the first project and $100 for a
second project, the second project will cost $75 because of reusable
components. The cost of people also starts to go down.”
Correia said the AIM market has been gradually evolving to integrated
offerings, called application platform suites (APS) for the last few years,
as customers have expressed a desire to buy everything at once. Examples of
an APS include Oracle’s 10g and BEA’s WebLogic platforms. But adoption of
these platforms has been slow due to cost concerns.
“While the customer wants the value of the integrated component, because of
budget constraints, they are only buying pieces,” Correia said. “Or they might already have an app server, so why should they pay
for the app server again? So we still estimate APS as a suite phenomenon for
less than 20 percent of the sales that are out there.”
Accordingly, many customers are picking up spare parts, a portal here, an
enterprise service bus (ESB)
Correia predicted the AIM market will continue to grow at a
slow but steady pace for most segments, because of the widespread need to
bundle middleware into other niches where a message-oriented technology
works well. These fields include enterprise applications and mobile and
wireless suites.
Gartner issued the report to whet the public’s appetite for its Gartner
Application Integration and Web Services Summit next week in Los Angeles where
Correia and other analysts will provide more insight into the future of the
AIM space.
