APAC SOA market shows early signs of maturity
ConvergenceAsia staff
22/01/2009

The market for Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) in Asia Pacific is showing early signs of maturity, with adoption rates beginning to slow at the same time that organisations’ SOA readiness continues to increase, says the latest report titled “SOA in APAC – Showing Signs of a Maturing Market”, by IT market research company Springboard Research. Springboard forecasts that the overall SOA market will grow from an estimated US$810 million in 2007 to US$2.7 billion in 2011.

The findings of this recently published report are based on a Springboard survey of 343 CIOs and business managers of SMBs and large enterprises in ASEAN (Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines), Australia, China, India, and New Zealand.

“The pace of SOA adoption has slowed as it has become more mainstream,” said Balaka Baruah Aggarwal, Senior Market Analyst - Emerging Software at Springboard Research. "Many SOA planners are yet to deploy SOA, with reasons as varied as ‘deferred for the moment’, ‘change in business priority’ and ‘no plans as such’.”

On the other hand, 74 per cent of SOA implementers expect their investments to increase over the next two years, with 25 per cent of implementers expecting increases in excess of 10 per cent. This indicates that strong, steady growth will continue, but challenges remain, particularly for organisations that have not yet implemented SOA.

While the business drivers for SOA adoption still align with broader business and IT priorities among most SOA planners, there is a clear gap between the need for SOA and the ability to execute, said Michael Barnes, Vice President - Software Research at Springboard Research. “This presents a strong opportunity for SOA-related consulting and professional services.”

SOA demand remains strong across the region, even as the SOA market itself matures and organisations face significant market and economic uncertainties. The tremendous growth that emerging economies like China, India and members of ASEAN countries like Indonesia and Malaysia face has driven demand for service oriented approaches in order to keep pace.

At the same time, many enterprises in mature economies like Australia, New Zealand and Singapore have already invested huge amounts in IT systems and are challenged to maximise those investments, particularly given ongoing concerns over both the short and long-term impacts of the global economic crisis.

The report indicates that IBM dominates the SOA market in mindshare and market share, followed by Microsoft and Oracle. Other major SOA players in APAC include HP, Progress Software, SAP, Software AG, Sun Microsystems and TIBCO. Enterprises in Asia said that the main reason for choosing a vendor for SOA products and solutions is proven track record at 47 per cent, followed by proven products and services at 41 per cent.

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