Magic Quadrant for Enterprise-Scope Application Platform Suites, 3Q05

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Research

Publication Date: 20 July 2005 ID Number: G00129592

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Magic Quadrant for Enterprise-Scope Application

Platform Suites, 3Q05

Yefim V. Natis, Massimo Pezzini, Daryl C. Plummer, Cameron Haight, Kimihiko Iijima

Organizations deploy enterprise-scope application platform suites to establish a single consistent technology platform for their multiple software projects. In 2005, 14 vendors meet Gartner's inclusion criteria for the E-APS Magic Quadrant.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 What You Need to Know ... 3

2.0 Magic Quadrant ... 4

3.0 Market Overview... 4

3.1 Market Definition/Description... 4

4.0 Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria ... 5

5.0 Evaluation Criteria ... 6

5.1 Ability to Execute ... 6

5.2 Completeness of Vision... 7

6.0 Comments ... 7

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Application Platform Suites, 2Q05 ... 4

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STRATEGIC PLANNING ASSUMPTION(S)

Through 2010, more than 75 percent of mainstream enterprises will invest in integrated multipurpose technology platforms aiming to avoid the complexity of best-of-breed systems integration (0.7 probability).

Through 2010, no one vendor will deliver all the required technology to eliminate the dependence of more than 90 percent of user enterprises on multiple technology providers (0.9 probability). Through 2010, E-APSs will not eliminate specialist middleware offerings and vendors in any APS core category (0.8 probability).

Through 2010, the vendors offering E-APSs will lead in market share in each APS core specialist market (0.9 probability).

ANALYSIS

1.0 What You Need to Know

Enterprises depend on platform middleware to establish the quality of service, architectural style and programming model for their business applications. Platform middleware acts as a container for business applications at execution time. It provides the tools that designers, developers and administrators need to manage the life cycle of their business applications. Application servers and application platform suites are the typical platform middleware deployed today.

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2.0 Magic Quadrant

Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Application Platform Suites, 2Q05

IBM Sun Microsystems Novell Fujitsu Oracle Cordys Microsoft Sybase BEA Systems Hitachi SAP NEC JBoss ObjectWeb Challengers Leaders

Niche Players Visionaries

As of July 2005

Completeness of Vision Ability

to Execute

Source: Gartner (July 2005)

3.0 Market Overview

Many software vendors with the ambition of software market leadership have recognized for some time that a modern business software platform cannot be a single stack of software dedicated to one pattern of service. Neither an application server, nor an integration suite, a portal product, a development framework, a collaboration suite, business intelligence or any other focused platform can meet all of the requirements of modern software engineering alone. These vendors intend to win customers in most of these individual markets and to establish themselves as the strategic software provider to the enterprise by way of defining and dominating a market of the unified application platform suite (APS) — the integrated assembly of the core platform technologies in the modern IT environment. The aim of the leading APS is to be the preferred multipurpose platform technology to the enterprise, not just a tool for one enterprise project at a time.

3.1 Market Definition/Description

APSs are a type of middleware that acts as a "superplatform" to meet most of the diverse requirements of modern business software in one integrated offering. These fundamental platform requirements include:

• The integration of business applications and services — typically implemented in an integration suite that includes the enterprise service bus (ESB) core, the

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business (B2B) integration, integrative business process management (BPM), legacy and application adapters and other aspects of the application integration problem

• The hosting of programmatically reusable business software components and services — typically implemented in an application server

• The hosting of user-facing business application software, including multichannel user access capability — typically implemented in a portal product

• Integrative development tools, metadata reference, systems management and security (see Note 1)

An enterprise-scope APS (E-APS) is an APS that enables IT organizations to tackle a succession of multiple projects of different types. The enterprise will acquire one or two components at a time, because each project may use only a subset of the suite's full feature set. Eventually, the organization will use each component of the E-APS.

4.0 Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

A vendor is included in the Gartner E-APS Magic Quadrant (see Figure 1) if it meets the following conditions:

1. It offers runtime technology, equipped with dedicated support for — and a degree of integration between — the following component-parts:

• A platform for programmatically accessible server-side software components (all or some of an application server's functionality)

• A platform for programmable user interaction (all or some of a portal's or other user-facing technology's functionality)

• A platform for application integration (all or some of an integration suite's functionality, including transformation, routing, microflow, messaging, B2B, Web services and access to adapters)

2. All three components must be licensed, delivered and supported by the vendor (but do not have to be the intellectual property of the vendor).

3. An integrated install process, and at least one of the following, is required:

• Common or federated development metadata repository across all three components

• Common or federated runtime monitoring and administration across all three components

• Common or integrated development platform for all three components

A competitive E-APS vendor will offer each of the APS components as a stand-alone product or will have sufficient competitive strengths in individual areas (or it must do both) to be featured in the relevant Gartner Magic Quadrants.

E-APSs may be packaged in multiple ways:

• As one integrated product only (for example, SAP NetWeaver)

• Stand-alone components only (for example, IBM's WebSphere family of products, Microsoft's Windows server family of products)

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• As a single integrated product or as a selection of individual components (for example, BEA Systems' WebLogic, Oracle's Fusion Middleware)

A single-product offering of the entire suite is not a mandatory requirement for an E-APS, but it does indicate a vendor's commitment to the notion of reducing complexity through an integrated solution. Offering a unified product also encourages the vendor to synchronize releases of its components and to establish a closer integration of the components, especially in the areas of deployment, configuration, administration and version control.

Many users value the advantages of one-stop product support, coordinated installation and versioning, and the integrated nature of development and management tools of an E-APS. At the same time, many users acquire the E-APS incrementally, as needed for the relevant projects (this has put pressure on vendors to deliver the components of the suite as competitive products in their own right, not only as part of the larger suite). Vendors must be able to appeal to both of these user buying patterns. Those vendors that offer only stand-alone components of a suite or only the fully assembled E-APS are at a market disadvantage.

There are vendors that offer products that meet the minimal definition of an APS, but are not equipped or intended as general all-purpose platforms. Some of these vendors specialize in composite-application-style projects (InterSystems, Magic Software). Others specialize in integration projects (Tibco Software, webMethods). These products may be APSs, but, because they are not intended as general-purpose, multi-project-style platforms, they are not E-APSs. Some other vendors can address limited APS-like problems but are not included in the Magic Quadrant. Those typically specialize in a relatively narrow subset of the APS function. Integration servers (WRQ, Seagull Software Systems, NEON Systems, Jacada and others — see "Magic Quadrant for Programmatic Integration Servers, 2005") are in this category. These offer a relatively simplistic user experience and focus their integration capability primarily on the integration of mainframe legacy applications. Their technical APS features are too thin and specialized to qualify for an APS or E-APS. Some portal products (such as those from Vignette and BroadVision) and development platforms (for example, Unify and Quovadix) also offer light APS-like functionality, but do not qualify as E-APSs.

5.0 Evaluation Criteria

A competitive E-APS must have an effective degree of consistency and integration between its components. A user must have an experience of buying, deploying, using and managing one integrated platform. The degree of such integration will vary, and it is the primary evaluation criterion of the power and vision of an E-APS offering. At the same time, an E-APS will be used for many projects, and it must allow partial and customized deployment of only the required components. The ability to customize the E-APS configuration is another important value of a competitive offering.

The E-APS market is a composite one. The evaluation criteria include the positioning of the vendor in the respective contributing markets (enterprise application servers, horizontal portals, integration backbones, business process management and B2B gateways). If the vendor doesn't appear in one or more of the relevant Gartner Magic Quadrants, we use a lower, "absent" rating. Vendors that appear in all contributing Magic Quadrants thus have some advantage; vendors that are leaders in the contributing Magic Quadrants have a further advantage.

5.1 Ability to Execute

The fundamental indications of a vendor's ability to execute are its attained industry and market presence and reputation, the record of its business and technical execution, and the degree to which it has delivered the essential core functionality expected from a competitive product.

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In addition to adopting the vendor execution ratings from the most recent relevant Gartner Magic Quadrants, we also consider delivery of integrative essentials:

• Integrated development tools

• Integrated runtime management tools

• Integrated security

• Current installed base

• Availability of add-ons from the vendor and partners

• Customer support for the suite

• Vendor viability as an E-APS vendor

• Vendor's current investment in the E-APS

• Partnerships (independent software vendors, systems integrators and others)

• Pricing, licensing, price negotiations and "terms and conditions" policies

• Maturity and architectural coherence of the suite

• Market awareness of the vendor's E-APS brand

• Depth and commitment of the installed base

5.2 Completeness of Vision

The fundamental indication of the completeness of vision is the degree to which a vendor anticipates and influences the prevailing market trends.

In addition to adopting the vendor vision rating from the most recent relevant Gartner Magic Quadrants, we also consider the vendor's strategy for integration:

• Common underlying middleware

• Common pluggable technical architecture

• Common metadata repository/registry

• One-product offering

• Stand-alone component product offerings

• Equal priority investment in all key components of an E-APS

• Custom-configurable installation and deployment process for the entire suite

• Subset specialist-APS renditions

• Credible growth strategy

6.0 Comments

BEA Systems: BEA was an early innovator in the APS space, with a large installed base and a long-term commitment to the concept of the APS. It enjoys leadership positions in integration,

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application server and portal markets. BEA also recently advanced its vision by identifying the boundaries of the APS scope and introducing the new platform-independent AquaLogic "service infrastructure." However, uneven business performance in the recent quarters increases BEA's vulnerability and holds back its execution.

Cordys: Cordys offers advanced and visionary, if less proven, technology via its XML-focused application server, messaging-based ESB and dedicated support for event-driven and service-oriented architectures. However, its limited geographic focus, small installed base and recent entry into the E-APS market hold back its overall market presence.

Fujitsu: Fujitsu Interstage is a well-established and visionary extended E-APS, limited by its geographic focus on Asia/Pacific markets. Recently, Fujitsu enhanced Interstage's service-oriented architecture with support for end-to-end real-time services, business process and information visibility. Fujitsu offers mainframe-class mission-critical systems framework for both online transaction processing and batch processing. Fujitsu limited software business in North America is driven by its popular business process management platform — a subset of the E-APS. The recent partnership with Software AG strengthens the data integration and metadata capability of Interstage and opens new business opportunities for Fujitsu in Europe and North America

Hitachi: Hitachi is a notable mission-critical player in the Asia/Pacific region (especially in Japan) but is not well-known in the U.S. or elsewhere. Hitachi’s Cosminexus is a (mainly) Java 2

Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)-based APS that includes a broad set of Hitachi’s

infrastructure software products such as mainframe-class and distributed transaction processing, solution infrastructure and component infrastructure. Cosminexus collaboration suite for

workplaces is also part of an extended suite. Hitachi's commitment to enterprise software is subordinate to its larger hardware and service business.

IBM: IBM enjoys a massive installed base and leading name recognition of its WebSphere family, and it is an influential APS leader, despite its reluctance to offer a single integrated APS product package. IBM is still striving to consolidate its vast and growing array of WebSphere-branded products. However, it has encapsulated its E-APS technology in the WebSphere Reference Architecture, a framework that is being consistently implemented and will be completed with the upcoming versions of the application integration and portal products aligned with WebSphere Application Server v.6.

JBoss: JBoss company has the vision and the ambition to compete in the full E-APS market as an independent open-source alternative, although presently it lacks some key integration capabilities. Despite its leadership position in the application server space, its Java Enterprise Middleware System (JEMS) — an APS offering — trails the leaders in completeness and in the degree of component integration. The ability of an open-source suite to be competitively integrated is still to be proven, although JBoss' "professional open-source" business model is a benefit to this end.

Microsoft: The Windows family of platform middleware is partly built into the Windows operating system (application server and intelligent client), partly delivered via its Office offering (the Infosys and SharePoint user interface platforms) and partly offered stand-alone (BizTalk Server and Visual Studio). Although all the products have a common Windows foundation and some enjoy a massive installed base, Microsoft has not invested in the E-APS vision enough to establish a single view of all E-APS components from the deployment, marketing, development,

management, repository, support, release scheduling or even the enabling-middleware perspectives.

NEC: NEC is a mission-critical player in the Asia/Pacific markets (especially in Japan), but it is not well-known in U.S. or elsewhere. NEC ActiveGlobe is a J2EE-based E-APS that includes

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various products for a service execution, mainframe-class transaction-processing monitor, development, business-process integration, and real-time portal-based collaboration. NEC also has notable technology capability, demonstrated in the B2B area and advanced Web services standards. Driven by its hardware offerings, NEC has some enterprise software presence in the U.S. retail industry.

Novell: Novell is in the process of augmenting and extending its well-integrated E-APS (exteNd) and popular Identity Management technology with JBoss and other open-source projects. A combination of Novell’s open-source SUSE operating system and Novell’s mixed open-source and commercial E-APS platform is a differentiated offering, targeting users looking for a gradual adoption of open source. Users set against open-source platforms look elsewhere, limiting the scope of enterprise growth of Novell’s E-APS.

ObjectWeb Consortium: The consortium, by the nature of its noncommercial business model, is limited in its ability to influence and integrate the components of its E-APS offering. It offers multiple options in all E-APS technology categories, thus enabling some unique E-APS profiles. It is the first open-source organization to announce an open-source ESB.

Oracle: Oracle Fusion Middleware is less known than some competitors, but Oracle has a broad functional vision for its E-APS that will also be the foundation for the next generation of Oracle applications. Notably, it is ahead of most in developing its event-driven angle (Gartner believes event-driven processing will be the industry-leading architecture by 2008, the way service-oriented architecture is in 2005, and Oracle leads the way in its APS R&D). Several Oracle E-APS components are certified on non-Oracle platforms, and its architecture is being moved to an extensible Java Business Integration model.

SAP: SAP — a fairly recent entry — is leading the composite-application charge, benefiting from its massive installed base, strategic management commitment, notable investments and natural insight into business application design. NetWeaver, SAP’s E-APS, has rapidly gained

industrywide awareness, and it is often considered an “inevitable” software infrastructure by SAP clients. Although less mature that other E-APSs, NetWeaver is showing fast-growing adoption in the SAP base and will be a key enabler for Enterprise Services Architecture, SAP’s service-oriented-architecture-based evolving application strategy.

Sun Microsystems: Sun offers visionary packaging and pricing of its suite technologies (multiple specialized suites, as well as the all-inclusive Java Enterprise System). The lack of integration technology in the suite lowers its ability to execute, but the proposed acquisition of SeeBeyond is aimed to address this shortcoming. Sun's industry leadership in advancing extensible platform architecture (the microkernel-style platform plug-in standard of Java Business Integration) puts its vision and industry influence forward.

Sybase: Sybase offers all components of an E-APS, although its portal and application server receive greater emphasis than the fragmented integration middleware, and the internal integration of the suite is minimal. (Sybase has recently begun to improve this: Its new WorkSpace is an integrated development platform for the suite.) Sybase's focus on financial and government customers and its growing investment in wireless applications differentiates Sybase from most other offerings, but its lack of horizontal focus holds back its momentum.

Conclusions: Application platform suites can be a mixed blessing (see "Software Suite Offerings Proliferate, and Complexity Engulfs All"), but the promise of improved productivity and reduced complexity will continue to draw users. The best practice in applying the E-APS is to recognize its strengths and its limitations: Place the E-APS technology among other enterprise software solutions as part of the larger virtual enterprise and "enterprise nervous system" strategy.

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RECOMMENDED READING

For more information on application platform markets, see: "Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Application Servers, 2Q05" "Magic Quadrant for Horizontal Portal Products, 2005"

Application integration is a complex function and is represented in Gartner research through several market segments and their respective Magic Quadrants. See:

"Magic Quadrant for Integration Backbone Software, 1H05" "Magic Quadrant for B2B Gateway Providers, 2Q05"

Acronym Key and Glossary Terms

APS application platform suite

B2B business-to-business

BPM business process management

E-APS enterprise-scope application platform suite

ESB enterprise service bus

J2EE Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition

JEMS Java Enterprise Middleware System

Note 1

Extended APSs

Real-world APSs are extended to offer development tools, a metadata repository, system management and security, content management and Web services administration. These and other extended features influence the overall quality of an APS but are not part of its minimal definition.

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