Application server software platforms (ASSPs) are coming of age and transforming into e-business platforms. According to IDC, ASSPs have grown from their roots to encompass all the functionality required to implement a complete e-business solution.
"Users have been clamouring for a comprehensive, integrated approach to building, deploying, and maintaining solutions for e-business, and vendors are finally responding to their needs," said Steve Garone, IDC`s vice president for Enterprise Integration Software.
IDC believes during the next few years e-business implementations will be based on a distributed, multi-tier, component-based architecture that contains strong management and integration capabilities. The middle tier will be the core of this new architecture, and ASSP products will be the foundation of the middle tier.
"Recognizing that ASSP products are the basis for, and foundation of, a multi-tier architecture, leaders in the ASSP market are adding functionality to their products that will help satisfy users` desire for a comprehensive solution," Garone said.
IDC warns, however, that ASSP vendors that try to develop a comprehensive solution on their own are setting themselves up for failure. "Any company, regardless of its size, will have to become involved in partnerships and acquisitions to succeed in this space," Garone said. "Vendors that succeed will be those who strike an effective balance between best-of-breed functionality and a worry-free integration strategy that leaves little of the pain of the integration task to the user."
IDC recently published The E-business Platform: Where Application Servers and Application Integration Meet (IDC #B23734). This bulletin describes the e-business platform and analyzes how it will affect IT implementations over the next few years. The bulletin also sizes the opportunity created by e-business platforms. Infrastructure, integration services, and application revenues are forecast through 2004.
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