Why IBM is the SOA Player to Watch

This week, the SOA buzz is all about IBM's Impact 2007 conference, which started Monday and runs through Friday in Orlando.

Of course, any time any big IT name -- Gartner, SAP, Oracle -- holds a conference, you'll see their news coverage rise as they make announcements and IT reporters and bloggers come back from various conferences.

Still, it seems like IBM has been in the SOA news a lot. I was beginning to think maybe the coverage was disproportionate. Then I read this article from CIO Insight.

It turns out, IBM holds 53 percent of the SOA infrastructure market, according to a recent article in CIO Insight.

Microsoft is its second closest competitor holds only 8 percent.

Surprised? CIO Insight reports some of the big names typically mentioned with SOA -- Sun, SAP and Oracle -- all hold 3 percent of the market along with webMethods and TIBCO. Sybase and BEA Systems each hold 2 percent, with the remaining percent are going to companies such as as Hewlett-Packard and Cognos.

A side note: You'll notice the percentages given by CIO Insight actually add up to 108 percent. I looked up the press release from WinterGreen Research, which performed the SOA market study quoted, and it confirmed that IBM holds 53 percent of the market. The release was less specific about the other companies; however, it did say that Microsoft, SAP and other big-name competitors are in the single digits.

But regardless of the exact numbers, it's safe to say IBM is dominating this space. And no wonder, considering IBM's been involved in SOA implementations for 4,500 customers.

So forgive us bloggers and newsies if IBM keeps popping up in SOA coverage. It's not our fault. It seems IBM really is the SOA vendor to watch.