This IDC study assesses the market opportunity for software revenue driven by service oriented architecture (SOA) in 2006 and presents a forecast for 2007–2011. Historical and forecast revenue data is shown for the total worldwide market, along with segmentation by primary software market. This study does not contain vendor-specific revenue, market shares, or vendor profiles.

"The marketplace is beginning to understand that the implications of SOA involve a lot more than just mere technology — it often requires that organizations embrace a new way of thinking and acting," said Sandra Rogers, program director for SOA, Web Services, and Integration research at IDC. "Software vendors have moved beyond selling technology to educating and advising companies on methodologies that are enabled by and often closely tied to their solutions, often needing to address the impact on the business domain to promote SOA value and organizational cooperation. This also points to continuing complexity in driving SOA deeper into the market and thus remaining on an evolutionary versus revolutionary SOA adoption and spending trajectory."