As organizations begin to resume IT spending in order to prepare for growth, many are focused on enterprise software. The worldwide enterprise software market showed broad growth and recovery in 2010 with total software revenue increasing 8.5 percent annually to a worldwide market size of $245 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. In 2009, worldwide revenue declined 2.5 percent to $226 billion.
The right enterprise applications can help organizations streamline operations, improve customer service and take advantage of new opportunities. However, deploying and managing large-scale business applications are top IT challenges. Organizations need the right expertise to gain maximum value from their enterprise software investments.
FusionStorm’s Enterprise Applications Group has built a unique “soup-to-nuts” practice that delivers unmatched expertise throughout the application lifecycle. The FusionStorm team provides services across multiple vendors/toolsets in three practice areas that represent the focal points for today’s enterprise application environment. FusionStorm can assist in the design, implementation and ongoing support of the core database applications that drive business processes, the middleware that links on-premises, web and cloud applications, and productivity-enhancing content management, messaging and collaboration applications.
Smart Choices
Within each practice area, FusionStorm has carefully selected solutions from Microsoft and Oracle as well as key open-source tools, giving customers their choice of best-of-breed platforms. This solution suite complements today’s heterogeneous software environment and reflects enterprise software purchasing patterns.
According to Gartner, Microsoft maintained the No. 1 position as it increased its worldwide enterprise software revenue market share to 22.4 percent in 2010. Growth results were enhanced in 2010 by the broader adoption of new releases of the Windows 7 operating system and Microsoft Office 2010 productivity software. Microsoft's total software revenue results have been improved by new strategies aimed not only at individuals, but also at organizations and multiple delivery models. The company is placing more emphasis on enterprise application and infrastructure software programming platforms.
Oracle showed the strongest growth among the top five vendors, as it increased its revenue 19.4 percent. Growth was achieved across all software markets, with faster growth emerging from its business intelligence, security, IT operations, and data integration and quality tools offerings. Oracle has kept most acquired technologies intact while integrating the infrastructure and middleware into Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g with some integration across the application portfolio. Oracle expects continued market momentum in its industry offerings, middleware, data quality and integration tools, master data management, database CRM and SCM solutions.
The worldwide application infrastructure and middleware (AIM) software revenue market totaled $17.6 billion in 2010, a 7.3 percent increase from 2009, according to Gartner. In 2009, worldwide AIM revenue grew 3.4 percent and reached $16.4 billion. Open-source is increasingly a part of deployment plans with a focus on open-source application servers, enterprise service bus and a few other AIM functionalities, such as orchestration and embedded firmware for integration appliances.
End to End Expertise
Vendor consolidation has been the norm in the enterprise software market for several years, with many vendors creating “ecosystems” that incorporate a wide range of product acquisitions. Nonetheless, competition remains fierce. FusionStorm has strong vendor alliances yet maintains a vendor-agnostic perspective that helps customers reap the rewards of this competitive landscape. FusionStorm’s licensing specialists are dedicated to maximizing application ROI.
Furthermore, FusionStorm delivers the expertise to ensure that enterprise applications don’t become “shelfware.” FusionStorm’s Enterprise Application Group can assist at any step, from requirements gathering through design and specification, product and platform selection, installation and configuration, and tuning and optimization.
The enterprise software team can call also upon data center specialists to ensure the infrastructure supports enterprise application initiatives. Data protection, availability, business continuity and ongoing application management round out FusionStorm’s uniquely comprehensive capabilities.
Many organizations are making strategic investments in enterprise applications to align IT with business opportunities. FusionStorm delivers the products and services needed to help organizations maximize their investments in business software and ensure that mission-critical applications meet business requirements.