Adoption and innovation in standards and services-based computing continue to significantly disrupt the entire IT landscape, and vendors from all disciplines are evolving their roles and strategies to capitalize on this pervasive movement. IDC's SOA and Web Services research provides insights into market adoption, vendor positioning, and technology innovations associated with advances toward highly dynamic computing environments. Studies include emerging trends in IT and business architectures and supporting technology; the design and deployment of service-oriented solutions; customer investment drivers; implementation and governance issues; the use of standards; and advancements in conjunction with event-based processing, virtualization, and on-demand platforms. These insights assist product and marketing professionals, top executives, architects, and line-of-business managers. Subscribers to this service receive direct access to IDC's top industry experts, who supply competitive analysis and positioning advice, help identify strategic partnering opportunities, assist with speaking to the investment community, provide press quotes, and more.

This service covers the following segments of the SOA and architectural landscape:

• SOA and Web services customer and market opportunities
• SOA governance, methodology, and organizational impact
• Metadata management and master data management
• Application architecture trends and emerging technologies

• Analyses and sizing of SOA- and Web services-driven opportunities in applications, development and deployment, and infrastructure markets and submarkets
• Opportunities for SOA- and Web services-specific technologies by industry, company size, and solution dimensions
• Customer views, requirements, and business impact of SOA solutions and supporting methodologies
• Vendor positioning for SOA platforms and solutions
• Architectural trends and technologies, including composite applications, event-based architecture, metadata and master data management, legacy modernization, and the dynamic enterprise
• The evolution and use of standards and frameworks
• The emergence of business architectures

1. Where are the key convergence points and differentiators for vendors in the rapidly evolving and volatile SOA landscape?
2. What makes SOA implementations successful, and how are organizations recognizing value?
3. How are infrastructure requirements, orchestration, security, and system management for SOA evolving with the market?
4. What is the market doing to address SOA governance and service life-cycle concerns?
5. What are the requirements for a services-based on-demand platform, and how is this influencing market opportunities?
6. How are open source initiatives influencing the SOA marketplace?

Active Endpoints, Adobe, ADP, Agilent, Akamai, AmberPoint, ASG, Attachmate, Attunity, BEA Systems, BMC, Borland, Business Objects, CA, Cape Clear, Cast Iron Systems, Cisco, ClickCommerce, Composite Software, Compuware, Cordys, DataMirror, Digital Harbor, Dreamfactory, EMC, Epicor, Fair Isaac, Fiorano, Forum Systems, Four J's, Fujitsu, GT Software, GXS, Hitachi, HP/Mercury/Systinet, Hyperion, IBM, Informatica, Initiate Systems, Intel, Intersystems, IONA, Itellix, iWay, Jacada, Kalido, Kapow Technologies, Lawson, Layer7, LogicLibrary, MicroFocus, Microsoft, Mindreef, mValent, NetManage, Nexaweb, Novell, ObjectRiver, OpenConnect, Oracle, Parasoft, Pervasive, Progress Software, Purisma, Quovadx, Rearden, Red Hat, Salesforce.com, SAP AG, SAS, Seagull, Siperian, Skyway Software, SOA Software, Software AG/webMethods, Sterling Commerce, StrikeIron, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, Symantec, TIBCO, Versata, Vignette, Vitria, WebLayers, and Xcalia.

These studies explore a cadre of dimensions related to buyer implementation and investment plans, including usage scenarios, critical business and technology drivers and challenges, technology and vendor selection criteria, and more.

Studies assess SOA- and Web services-driven software spending by traditional software categories and by specific SOA software submarkets, including service mediation, service management and monitoring, service orchestration, data services, composite applications, service repositories, SOA life cycle, and more. Primary views also include geography, vertical industry, and company size.

This research explores competitive positioning within SOA markets, along with the impact of SOA on vendor topologies and ecosystems highlighting areas of convergence and differentiation.

These analyses explore two important information architectural dimensions - metadata management and master data management (MDM) - including vendor positioning and advancements, market opportunity sizing and forecasts, and implementation dynamics. Applied (CDI, PIM, etc.) and infrastructure views of MDM are presented.

This research discusses trends in architecture, focusing on the capabilities required to fuel and manage today's dynamic business environments, including advances in on-demand and business network platforms, event-driven architecture (EDA), virtualization, and Web 2.0 technologies and development approaches.

These studies highlight marketplace trends, including connectivity, analyses, and composite development tools geared for legacy environments, with special focus on technological change and vendor approaches as they adapt to the world of SOA.

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