IDC today announced the publication of a new IDC MarketScape report that profiles and ranks the leading technology vendors in the emerging worldwide software appliance market. IDC MarketScape vendor analysis reports utilize a rigorous scoring methodology that produces a definitive assessment of each vendor's current market capabilities for competing in the future.
The report, IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Software Appliance 2009 Vendor Analysis (IDC #217473), evaluates the offerings of nine software appliance vendors (Canonical, IBM, JumpBox, Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat, rPath, Sun Microsystems, VMware), focusing on current capabilities and menu of services and their alignment to customer needs. It also assesses each vendor's future strategy and how it aligns with customer requirements in the next three to five years. The results were used to create a unique, graphical representation of the market based on each vendor's current capabilities and future strategies.
The analysis reveals that the leading vendors in the software appliance market were also the first entrants. The market is still emerging and many of the vendors have yet to fully release all of their products and/or services. This means that there is great potential for shake-up as the industry progresses. It will be important for companies to focus on innovation and execution to succeed in the next few years. Not only the ability, but also the willingness to adapt to a disruptive market is what will separate the leaders from the rest of the pack in the next few years.
"Software appliances change the way applications are produced and consumed, disrupting traditional channels and services much in the same way software as a service has," said Brett Waldman, research analyst in IDC’s System Infrastructure research group. "ISVs should partner with one of the software appliance enablers, which can bring the ISV through the development to the sales and marketing to the maintenance of software appliances through their differentiated technology, services, and/or channel partners."