Service-Oriented Architecture Poised for Takeoff in Asia

Singapore – Springboard Research, a leading innovator in the IT Market Research industry, today announced results from its latest research on the service-oriented architecture (SOA) market in Asia (excluding Japan). Springboard estimates the region’s 2007 SOA market amounts to US$810 million, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40%, which will bring the market to US$2.2 billion by 2010. Springboard’s research further showed that Australia was the largest SOA market in the region at US$205 million.

“SOA continues to gain traction in the market as more companies are either implementing SOA or are planning to do so,” said Balaka Baruah Aggarwal, Senior Analyst of Emerging Software for Springboard Research. “Awareness has increased substantially in the last year, and we are now seeing that translate into healthier adoption levels across Asia,” Aggarwal added.

The primary SOA drivers in Asia are improved service delivery in increasingly competitive markets and improved integration at both the data and application levels. The leading service delivery improvements enabled by SOA cited by respondents included reducing the time and cost of delivering services, making services sharable across the enterprise and more flexible and reusable services. Although equally important, integration appears to be emerging as an enabler supporting the improved service delivery objective.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are also strong drivers for SOA deployment with 49% of the firms surveyed that had experienced M&A deploying SOA to integrate the IT systems of the merged companies. Governance is also continuing to become more important with 85% of survey respondents instituting governance in SOA deployments and 40% having a structure integrated from the beginning of implementation.

“While SOA continues to do well in the region, users still have some challenges. The main challenge with SOA deployment as named by survey respondents is managing performance and scalability, and 21% mentioned this difficulty as their number one area of concern,” said Aggarwal. “Additionally, SOA is still largely a technology initiative led by IT managers as indicated by 68% of our surveyed respondents; as such, SOA has mainly been a technology-driven investment instead of an investment focused on addressing clear-cut business goals,” added Ms. Aggarwal. “This presents an opportunity for vendors.”

In Springboard’s analysis, IBM remained the leading SOA vendor in the region, followed by other strong SOA players such as Microsoft, BEA, HP, SAP, Tibco and Oracle. From its end-user survey, Springboard found that respondents named “proven products and solutions” as the most important reason for choosing an SOA vendor, followed by “clearly defined roadmap for deployment” and “vendor reputation”.

About This Study

The Springboard Research report, Service-Oriented Architecture in Asia: Poised for Takeoff, examines key trends, assesses market sizes, and provides forecasts for Asia’s (excluding Japan) SOA market. This Springboard report provides insightful analysis on the market dynamics of SOA in the region, including SOA’s awareness level, its uptake, challenges and drivers. Springboard’s study offers market data, outlines the activities of major players and highlights customer success stories. Our analysis is based on the responses of 354 senior business and IT executives in Australia, China, India, and Singapore, extensive interviews with senior industry executives and in-depth secondary research.


About Springboard Research

Springboard Research’s core values are value, integrity and insight. Led by a team of dynamic industry experts, Springboard Research provides its customers with high value IT market research that helps them identify new market opportunities, growth engines and innovative ways to go to market. As a result, Springboard’s clients lead rather than follow market trends. Not bound by legacy, Springboard’s cutting-edge research model leverages its offshore research centers, the Internet, and an increased use of technology as engines of innovation to deliver unique research value. Provided as an alternative to traditional IT market research, Springboard’s reports deliver data and knowledge in a more usable and interactive format for our clients. Springboard Research works with the largest IT companies in the world in the software, services, hardware, and telecommunications sectors.

Founded in 2004, Springboard Research serves the needs of its clients globally through offices in the United States, Australia, Singapore and Japan as well as global research centers in India, Pakistan, and Morocco. Springboard has been acknowledged as an emerging leader in the global IT market research industry and was recently named a “Rising Star” by Outsell, the leading research and advisory firm for the information industry.

For more information regarding Springboard Research, please visit www.springboardresearch.com


Media Contacts

Chris Perrine, COO & EVP of Sales & Marketing
Springboard Research
65-6325-9716
cperrine@springboardresearch.com

Balaka Baruah Aggarwal, Senior Analyst- Emerging Software
Springboard Research
91-11-40518249
baggarwal@springboardresearch.com