Middleware Market Dominated By IBM In 2010

Darryl K. Taft,

After over a decade at the top, IBM’s hold on the middleware market continues to grow, says Gartner

IBM has retained its crown as the worldwide leader in the application infrastructure and middleware software market, based on total worldwide revenue for 2010, according to Gartner.

In the research firm’s latest middleware report, IBM was the leading software vendor last year with a 32.6 percent market share, extending its lead to nearly double that of Oracle, its closest competitor. IBM grew 14.4 percent in 2010, twice as much as the overall market. The worldwide application infrastructure and middleware software market grew 7.3 percent to $17.6 billion, according to Gartner.

Growing Hold On Business Integration

“The newest Gartner report reflects IBM’s growing lead in business integration middleware,” said Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president of IBM Software. “Accelerating key business processes and flexing their underlying infrastructures are major priorities in the enterprise today and IBM has core strengths that help clients meet those needs.”

For more than a decade, analysts have ranked IBM the number one share holder in the worldwide application infrastructure and middleware software market. And apart from its overall lead, according to the Gartner report, IBM holds the number one market share position in key sub-markets growing faster than the overall IT market.

For example, the Business Process Management Suite (BPMS) segment grew at 9.2 percent in 2010, Gartner said. IBM was named the number one vendor in BPM software with a 24.7 percent share; more than double that of its closest competitor. BPM software enables companies to develop and implement processes that help their businesses be more agile and grow.

Moreover, Gartner reported that IBM continues to be number one in other growing and key areas including the Message Oriented Middleware market, the Transaction Processing Monitor market and the combined markets of Enterprise Service Bus Suites and Integration Appliances. IBM’s continued market share leadership in middleware has been a key reason for the company’s strong growth, IBM officials said.