For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Microsoft Ups The ALM Ante With Its Bet On Teamprise

Expect VS 2010 To Accelerate The Shakeout In The Application Life-Cycle Management Market

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, November 16, 2009

Microsoft's Team Foundation Server (TFS) has proven very popular with .NET developers but not so much with Eclipse developers. This presents a problem for Microsoft, because many of its largest customers develop for both .NET and Java and want a consolidated . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

SAP Will Retrench With NetWeaver

SAP Will Focus On New Analytics Opportunities, Not Stack Wars

by John R. Rymer, November 12, 2009

Pop quiz: What is SAP's direction with NetWeaver? We couldn't answer that question either, so we traveled to SAP's TechEd conference in October to find out. NetWeaver is an also-ran in enterprise middleware but is vital to the many organizations that . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Enterprise Platform Trends, H1 2009: Bye-Bye Vista

by Ellen Daley, November 10, 2009

Forrester's six-month study of 75,453 enterprise users during H1 2009 reveals interesting insights into browser type, operating system, screen resolution, color depth, and Java and Flash adoption. These insights are especially useful for enterprise software . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Vendors Beware: Virtualization, PaaS, And SaaS Are Changing The Capacity Management Tools Market

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, November 10, 2009

Continuous improvement in the server technology performance-price ratio has caused many organizations to simply dismiss the need for accurate workload and resource planning efforts. In the current economic climate, infrastructure optimization and operational . . .

For CIOs

CIOs: Business Alignment And BT Enablement Require Business Capability Maps

At Your Level, You Can't Rely On Any Other Single IT Business Model

by Bobby Cameron, October 30, 2009

CIOs are aggressively tackling their planning and management challenges, deploying tools and building models to address a wide variety of functions like asset management, IT services management, application rationalization, business process efficiencies, . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Market Overview: PLM Deployment Support

New Offerings From Vendors And Service Providers Lower Implementation Hurdles

by Roy C. Wildeman, October 21, 2009

As companies pursue a more ambitious agenda for product life-cycle management (PLM), the complexity of their application deployments is on the rise, creating a host of new integration, data migration, and customization challenges for application development . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Smart Grid Technologies: Coming To A Utility Near You

Modern IT And Communications Systems Are Transforming The US Power Industry

by Roy C. Wildeman, October 19, 2009

Today's energy companies face an unprecedented quandary of regulatory requirements, market pressures, and public scrutiny that, in combination, act to disrupt traditional approaches to cutting costs and servicing consumers. With the recent federal stimulus . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Modernization Decisions: Migrate, Rewrite, Or Replace A 40-Year-Old Assembler Application?

by Phil Murphy, October 2, 2009

Client inquiries asking Forrester for help in making application modernization decisions have spiked in recent months, spurred on by firms' need to make the most of the applications they already own while jettisoning applications that no longer effectively . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

TechRadar™ For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals: Cloud Computing, Q3 2009

As Much Diversity Of Maturity Across Categories As Confusion Among Them

by James Staten, October 2, 2009

The No. 1 challenge in cloud computing today is determining what it really is. What categories of services exist within the definition and business model, and how ready are these options for enterprise consumption? Forrester defines cloud computing as . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

The Tier One Middleware Vendors

A SWOT Analysis Of The Leading Business Process Platform Vendors: IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, And SAP

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., September 4, 2009

The four largest traditional software vendors — IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP — compete around business process platform software. This broader software segment covers all the components that independent software vendors (ISVs) need to create a packaged . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Best Practices In User Experience (UX) Design

Design Compelling User Experiences To Wow Your Customers

by Mike Gualtieri, September 4, 2009

Users have great expectations when they visit your Web and mobile applications. They increasingly want an experience that's valuable, easy to use, aesthetically pleasing, and emotionally satisfying. To retain and gain customers, you have to continually . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

A Surprising New Java Platform Option: VMware

Acquiring SpringSource, VMware Targets Java And Clouds

by John R. Rymer, Mike Gualtieri, James Staten, Jeffrey S. Hammond, August 26, 2009

VMware's ambition is to expand up the stack from its franchise in systems virtualization software into application platforms. The company's decision to buy Java frameworks specialist SpringSource is a first step toward realizing this larger ambition as . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Integrate Enterprise Architecture With Application Portfolio Governance

by Henry Peyret, August 24, 2009

IT organizations that are seeking to drive down operating costs while delivering business projects on time and on budget find they must manage their application portfolios to provide an optimal foundation for execution. Application portfolio management . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

With "11g," Oracle Steps Out Of IBM's Middleware Shadow

New Release Will Also Blast Past SAP NetWeaver And Challenge Microsoft

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, John R. Rymer, August 19, 2009

The latest release of Oracle Fusion Middleware, dubbed "11g," establishes Oracle as the innovator among Java platform vendors. The first modules of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g — the core Java application server, development tools, service-oriented architecture . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Case Study: Using SOA And BPM To Support Enterprise Agility

How A Florida College Used An Integrated Approach To Reach Its Goals

by Ken Vollmer, August 14, 2009

Case studies are often the best way to illustrate technology's dramatic impact on enterprises. This case study provides an excellent example of how a joint implementation of a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM) can . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Complex Event Processing (CEP) Platforms, Q3 2009

The Fledgling CEP Platform Market Is Vibrant, Competitive, And Dynamic

by Mike Gualtieri, John R. Rymer, August 4, 2009

Forrester evaluated nine complex event processing (CEP) platforms using 114 criteria and found Progress Software and Aleri to be standout Leaders because of their top scores in the event processing features and strategy categories. Solid features and . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Packaged Apps Versus Platforms For Custom Development: Which Ones Sell Better?

IT Spend Analysis 2009: The Right Focus For Software Vendors

by Holger Kisker, Ph.D., Stefan Ried, Ph.D., July 31, 2009

In times of economic challenge, IT budgets face the same pressures as other cost centers of a company. We thus analyzed the 2009 IT spending plans of 2,731 IT executives and technology decision-makers to identify any budget shift between different software . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Yet Another Cloud

Forrester's First Proposal Of A Cloud Taxonomy

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., July 30, 2009

Despite the current crisis, the demand for cloud computing is growing at enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Some customers consider virtual infrastructure in the Internet as cloud, while others deem their business applications delivered . . .

For CIOs

Distributed Enterprise 2.0

CIOs In Consumer-Facing, Distributed Firms Can Capitalize On Cloud Computing

by George Lawrie, July 23, 2009

In a desperate effort to maintain the connection with fickle consumers, line-of-business executives and their allies in IT are conspiring to lower the IT drawbridge in order to deliver personalized customer experiences wherever and whenever consumers . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

European Airline Aims To Delight Passengers Through RFID Bag Tracking

Event-Driven Solution Lowers Costs While Promoting Happy Travelers

by Mike Gilpin, July 15, 2009

Processing lost bags costs airlines a lot of money: more than $1,200 per thousand passengers, not to mention the inconvenience to passengers. Thus, airlines are highly motivated to apply new technology to solving this problem. Through an innovative combination . . .

For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

Open Source eCommerce Solutions: Truths And Myths

Is Using An Open Source eCommerce Platform Solution Right For Your Business?

by Brian K. Walker, July 14, 2009

Open source eCommerce solutions are gaining the attention of eCommerce business and technology leaders, who are curious about their viability and applicability to their business needs. While open source offers many potential benefits, Forrester uncovered . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Platform-As-A-Service Market Sizing

A New $15-Billion-Plus Market Awaits Vendors

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., July 13, 2009

The increasing adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS) across the world requires software vendors to look for a more efficient way of deploying business applications on multitenant platforms. Because independent software vendors (ISVs) are starting to . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Balance Architecture And Agility To Sustain Value Delivery

The Role And Value Of Architecture In Agile Software Development

by Dave West, July 10, 2009

Enterprise architects often criticize Agile methods because they perceive them as lacking architectural control or governance. This lack of control and governance arguably leads to systems that have higher operational costs and become increasingly difficult . . .

For CIOs

Enterprise Software Budgets And Initiatives

Consolidation, Modernization, And Collaboration Are Top Software Priorities

by Sharyn Leaver, July 10, 2009

Budgeting and planning season is right around the corner, and an armful of new and unproven technologies and software initiatives promise to change the way IT conducts its business. IT organizations are wondering what to consider and what to let pass . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Anatomy Of A Portfolio Management Tool

Common Qualities Apply To All Types Of Portfolio Management Tools

by Phil Murphy, June 23, 2009

The term "portfolio management" is officially in vogue — it has been appended to applications, projects and programs, enterprises, and to IT itself. But what does it mean to manage a portfolio? What are the criteria for determining whether portfolio management . . .