I found this piece, published by Bill Miller on ZDNet last week, to be particularly interesting. He describes in it the four driving forces for data integration in 2008.

According to research firm IDC, the global market for data integration should reach $2.9b in 2011. Bill Miller believes that traditional and packaged integration software used today in enterprises only partially meet their needs and that they usually still require custom developments. More flexible, more cost effective and easier to use open source solutions are emerging and start to replace custom developments. Talend Open Studio is part of this group, our customers’ case studies testify to this.

In parallel, four factors will contribute to the growth of data integration demand in 2008:

- A more systematic adoption and use of BI tools: traditionally used by large enterprises, these tools are now more affordable and available to SMBs. This growth of the use of BI tools will stimulate the integration market.

- The increased use of SaaS solutions: a major trend in 2007, that will extend in 2008, is the growth of these solutions. Bill Miller mentions research from Saugatuck that shows that 17% of US SMBs use one or more SaaS solutions. But to reap the benefits of these offerings, they need to be integrated with existing applications, for example via Web Services.

- The replacement of legacy EDI systems with B2B transactions based on Internet and XML: according to Forrester Research, over 20 million EDI transactions take place each day, and over on third of the US Gross National Product rely on EDI! The transition to XML should not only improve business processes, but also reinforce the use of integration tools.

- The increased use of RIA (Rich Internet Application) and the growth of Web 2.0: enterprise applications will rely more and more on technologies such as AJAX, Ruby or REST. But these technologies will need to be integrated with business processes and the back office, which will grow even more the integration market.

I will add a key element that I have discussed many times in this blog: interoperability. All organizations, regardless of their size, are faced with major interoperability issues in their quest for more agility. By the way, this will be a driving argument of my keynote at Solutions Linux on January 29. Hope to see you there!

Bertrand