Consumption of Web Services Will Greatly Increase Through 2009, IDC Finds.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- According to a recently released IDC study, the vendor community has shifted its primary attention from Web services creation to that of more robust consumption, with security, management, messaging and event processing, and the assembly of services into composite solutions as key focal points. Leading adopters are evolving proof-of-concept implementations into more robust deployments. IDC estimates that $2.3 billion was spent worldwide on total Web services software in 2004, more than double the amount from the previous year. IDC expects spending to continue to increase dramatically over the next 5 years, reaching approximately $14.9 billion by 2009.

"Web services are expected to become even more pervasively used throughout the entire computing stack," said Sandra Rogers, program director for SOA, Web Services, and Integration research at IDC. "Web services have been and will continue to be primarily adopted by technology vendors that then proliferate the use and consumption of Web services via integrated solutions more so than enterprises addressing all the development and processing complexity directly."

Several trends influencing the level of spending for Web services software include:

--Continued vendor and product consolidation

--Price pressures and shifting license models

--Evolving maturity and skill sets in developing Web services and Services oriented architecture (SOA) solutions

--Major product version releases by key vendors influencing the landscape

--Complexity of and rate of adoption for various Web services standards

--Organizations balancing existing base of technologies until volume and levels of complexity force review and investment

The Web services development, deployment, and information access marketplace is currently the largest primary Web services software category, although Web services applications software will ultimately experience the highest growth through 2009. From a regional perspective, nearly two-thirds of the Web services software market is currently concentrated in North America, primarily in the United States, and the region will continue to host the majority of the market through 2009.

The IDC study, Worldwide Web Services Software 2005-2009 Forecast: Let the Races Begin (IDC #33418), provides historical and forecast revenue data for the total worldwide Web services software market and by geographic region, along with segmentation by six software market categories. Key supply-side market trends and user adoption dynamics are also discussed.

To purchase this document, call IDC's Sales hotline at 508-988-7988 or email [e-mail].

About IDC

IDC is the premier global market intelligence and advisory firm in the information technology and telecommunications industries. We analyze and predict technology trends so that our clients can make strategic, fact-based decisions on IT purchases and business strategy. Over 700 IDC analysts in 50 countries provide local expertise and insights on technology markets. Business executives and IT managers have relied for 40 years on our advice to make decisions that contribute to the success of their organizations.

IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. Additional information can be found at www.idc.com

All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.