Middleware's future: Dropping out of the middle

30.01.2006
As the software layer between the operating system and applications, middleware is a huge market. Gartner research says that in 2004, the application integration, middleware (AIM) and portal market in EMEA grew by 7.4 percent, reaching US$2 billion.

The research company further notes that, although the concept of application integration has become mainstream, the market has not become easier for software providers. It says that competition has intensified, software megavendors have strengthened their offerings, and new players focused on Web services whilst enterprise service bus (ESB) technology has entered the market.

Despite incessant merger and acquisition activity and ongoing consolidation in some sub-segments -- for example, application servers and message-oriented middleware (MOM) -- the market remains fragmented across myriad vendors, who are struggling to diversify and defend their margins.

New opportunities

Vendors are also, says Gartner, increasingly looking at new opportunities, for example, the development of service-oriented architecture (SOA) -- in unexplored territories, such as niche vertical industries and the mid-market, and, therefore, are facing marketing and product development difficulties that they hardly experienced before.