Get used to the acronym IoT, for Internet of Things, because the software that is running it is fast becoming a full-fledged business market.
As more and more devices such as sensors, videocams and others get connected and start relationships, some intelligence is necessary in the software or firmware of each one for them to carry out their assigned duties—however broad-based or limited those duties might be. Most of these field devices will be pouring their data into vast pools of virtualized storage in the cloud to be used for business analytics purposes—and those applications are where the bulk of the market spend is headed.
Technology Business Research came out Sept. 18 with its twice-yearly Business Intelligence Software Vendor Benchmark, reporting that the business intelligence software market will reach a whopping $40 billion by 2018 as vendors expand and integrate portfolios to capitalize on customers' BI software investment plans.
Major Jump in Revenue Expected Over Five Years
Another industry researcher, Gartner Inc., reported the BI market to have totaled $13.1 billion in 2012, a 6.8 percent increase from 2011 revenue of $12.3 billion.
The TBR research indicates that customers' BI software consumption patterns are broadening, with customers often moving from stand-alone tools to packaged BI applications and then to analytics apps that are complementary to business applications.
The projected 2013 growth for the BI software market shows the market is at an inflection point: Revenue grew by double digits across the start of the year, fueled by initial public offerings (IPOs) around high-interest segments, including data visualization, but growth is set to slow in the remaining quarters.
Enterprise software vendors IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP are using established go-to-market teams and strategies to bundle BI sales in broader installed base purchases, maximizing BI margin. An exposure-led approach—using single deals with marquee brands to increase market appeal and attract prospective customers—positions IPO vendors, including Tableau and Splunk, to monetize portfolio and sales investments, TBR said.
Dell Becoming a Major Player
Dell Software's recent acquisitions of Kitenga and Quest—which have been incorporated with other buys, such as Boomi, Kace and Scalent, into Dell Software—create a portfolio of BI assets ready for monetization. TBR projects that Dell will funnel near-term investment into R&D to engineer BI applications and platforms from current tool assets.
TBR's 2Q13 Business Intelligence Software Vendor Benchmark is a semiannual publication that looks at the overall BI software market as well as BI software market segments (such as BI applications and platforms, basic BI tools, advanced BI tools and data warehousing).
The benchmark includes coverage of Actuate, Birst, Board International, Datameer, Dell Software, Domo, GoodData, Google, HP Software, IBM Software, Informatica, Information Builders, Jaspersoft, KXEN, Microsoft, MicroStrategy, Oracle, Pentaho, Pivotal (reflecting historic contributions from legacy EMC and VMware portfolios), Qliktech, Salient, SAP, SAS, Splunk, Tableau, Teradata and Tibco.
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