Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 07 | Page 74

INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Software for Business Market leaders failed to capitalise on PaaS growth in 2015, says Gartner Worldwide application infrastructure and middleware (AIM) software revenue totalled $23.9 billion in 2015, a 0.1% increase from 2014, according to Gartner. The considerable appreciation of the US dollar in 2015 masked growth in the market. In constant currency terms the market grew 7.8%, driven by rapid growth in the platform as a service (PaaS) segment. “ The PaaS segment showed the most impressive growth, not just in the AIM market but across the entire enterprise software market,” said Fabrizio Biscotti, Research Director at Gartner. “Integration PaaS (iPaaS) grew 55% in US dollars, while application PaaS (aPaaS) grew 40%, despite headwinds from the appreciating US dollar.” While older technology remains the first choice for the most demanding application scenarios, the evolving maturity of cloud application infrastructure now offers greater agility, scalability and efficiency than traditional on-premises technologies. This ongoing transition to cloud services and the emerging wave of innovation surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT) further pushes application infrastructure spending away from older models toward event-driven analysis and processes. “Market concentration among the largest vendors is diminishing under pressure 74 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com