Compuware Leads in Mainframe Testing Market

Compuware holds the top spot in the mainframe testing tools market, with a 54.4 percent share of the market in 2008, according to market research firm Gartner.

Gartner’s Dataquest report, "Market Share: Application Development Software, Worldwide, 2008," indicates that Compuware took the top position in the mainframe testing market with year-over-year growth rate with 5.4 percent growth, with the nearest competitor growing at 0.9 percent. And although Compuware held 54.4 percent of the market, its closest competitor only has a 22.1 percent market share.

"Casual observers may intuitively believe and flippantly claim that the mainframe is a market in decline," said Mike Chuba, a vice president at Gartner. "The facts say that there are an estimated 14 million mainframe MIPS installed worldwide, and this installed base continues to grow at a long-term rate of 15 percent per year. Mainframe use isn’t just a function of legacy applications from 30 years ago.”

In its report, Gartner defines the testing tools market as applying to commercially or internally developed software or services to assist in the testing process, including functional and load/stress testing. According to Gartner, automated tests provide consistent results and data points. The benefits are ease of maintenance, the ability to efficiently use resources in off-peak hours and the capability to create reports based on the executed tests, the company said.

“With decades of business application expertise and proven customer value, Compuware mainframe solutions continue to empower the largest companies in the world to reduce costs, protect sensitive data, optimize application performance and enable a new generation of mainframe workers.” said Rose Rowe, vice president of mainframe strategy at Compuware, in a statement. “Our customers make our market leadership possible, and we will continue to earn their trust through an ongoing commitment to extending the value of our solutions.”